hankyoreh

Police requested arrest warrants yesterday for Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) Busan Direction Committee member Kim Jin-suk and dismissed Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction (HHIC) worker Park Yeong-jae, along with two other people. The individuals in question are reportedly charged with breaking and entering. The request comes just a day after Kim came down after over 300 days in a 35-meter crane and was admitted to the hospital. The actions of the police are inappropriate in many respects.
First, it throws cold water on a rare instance of social consensus. After a difficult process, the HHIC labor and management finally managed to reach an agreement, earning the applause of many South Koreans. The arrest warrant request is unfortunate in view of the agreement between labor and management to withdraw all civil and criminal suits and accusations.
The HHIC situation was an incident that forced the entire South Korean population to think about the layoff issue facing our society. It is arguably an instance where important progress was made in determining how to resolve this issue. The ability to achieve a positive conclusion to an extremely difficult process was due in no small part to the tens of thousands of citizens, civic and labor groups, and politicians who paid visits of encouragement aboard the Hope Buses.
At the end of the day, though, the real credit must go to the workers, including Kim Jin-suk, who put their lives on the line to carry out a protracted aerial protest. Kim in particular became an icon of hope to workers as she showed the superhuman force of will to hold out in the crane for 309 days. Just when it seemed like her simple wish to “warm up in the sauna, Jjimjilbang, and have some ramen” looked ready to be realized, police set out to place her under arrest. One cannot help being concerned that this rare atmosphere of reconciliation between labor and management may be ruptured.
In legal terms as well, it is difficult to believe there is any risk of Kim or the others fleeing or destroying evidence. The circumstances of the aerial protest were known to everyone in the country; there is no question of “concealing the evidence.” Also, the police did not request for two people, including former Korean Metal Workers’ Union HHIC chapter head Chae Ghil-yong, who held an 87-day aerial protest at the same place that began in February. It is unconvincing to argue that Kim and her group alone need to be placed under arrest.
Police very nearly ruined things on Nov. 9 by hastily dispatching forces into the Yeongdo shipyard. The use of government authority should conform to common sense, and law enforcement needs to show fellow feeling if it is to win the support of the public. Arrest is not a fate that should be handed to someone who has come back alive from the brink of death. The police should let Kim Jin-suk stay in the sauna and warm herself for as long as she wants.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]