The unions are bringing pressure to bear on the governing parties as they prepare for National Assembly elections in mid-April. Police, employers, and the government are threatening legal action against striking workers.

Workers at four carmakers in south Korea went on strike April 6, bringing production by the Daewoo, Hyundai, Kia, and Ssangyong companies to a halt.

The unionists oppose the proposed sale of the Daewoo Motor Co. and the Ssangyong firm. About 5,000 workers from the Korea Metal Workers Federation are expected to join the auto workers in the stoppage.

"We oppose a sell-off to foreigners!" chanted 3,000 workers at the Daewoo plant in Pupyong, west of the capital city of Seoul, at a rally held the previous week. The workers at that plant, which produces half the company's output of cars, had gone on strike a week earlier, on March 31. Unionists say that foreign ownership of the troubled company will lead to mass layoffs. They are calling for its nationalization or sale to a domestic manufacturer.

Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. are considered front-runners among carmakers bidding for Daewoo, which produced more than three-quarters of a million cars in 1999, and holds around $18 billion in assets and almost $14 billion in debts. The U.S. auto giants are competing to strengthen their position in Asian markets.

On April 9 Finance Minister Lee Hun-jai and 10 other cabinet ministers threatened the unionists, saying the government would deal strictly with so-called illegal strikes. The next day, on April 10, police chiefs announced that they plan to arrest a list of two dozen strike leaders. The Kia bosses stated they will prosecute some 17 union members for alleged violations of employment rules.

Other capitalists are also organizing for a showdown. The management at the Seoul Metropolitan Subway Corp. said the company would hire replacement workers after the subway drivers called a 48-hour strike starting April 11 to support their demands for a minimum of six days off per month and reduced working hours.

Unionized bank workers called a strike for May 30 to demand an end to restructuring. Railway workers are planning a walkout for the following day, to call for an end to government plans to privatize rail transport. Around 4,500 resident doctors at 80 hospitals, members of the Korea Intern and Residents Association, began refusing to see patients on April 7.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) announced that rallies and other actions would be organized throughout May, leading to a possible general strike by the end of the month. In wage talks due to begin after April 13, the KTCU is demanding a five-day workweek, the restoration of wages and employment to pre-crisis levels, and a halt to corporate restructuring. Another national union body, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, has also called for a general strike.

The confidence of workers in south Korea, many of whom have experience in previous labor battles, is being picked up in the context of an economic upturn in this semicolonial country with a relatively large industrial base.

The upturn follows a deep economic crisis that battered many Asian economies beginning in the middle of 1997. The government of President Kim Dae-jung claims that in the year from March 1999 the economy grew by more than 1 million jobs--about 40,000 of them in manufacturing, and around 140,000 in construction.

According to the Korea Herald, "Labor forces are likely to wage more fierce battles than in previous years as they are determined to be compensated for wage losses suffered during the past two years of harsh corporate restructuring."  
 
 
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