hankyoreh

the new head of Hyundai Motor labor union

After 14 years, the executive for the Hyundai Motor labor union, a core member of the Korean Metals Workers’ Union (KMWU) and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), is changing the focus of its activities towards a “moderate pragmatism.”

The election management committee for the KMWU’s Hyundai Motor chapter announced results of the runoff election for the union's third chapter head on Friday. According to the committee, Lee Kyung-hun placed first, with 21,177 of the 40,288 votes cast, or 52.56 percent of the vote, while the more “militant” candidate, Kwon O-il, came in second with 18,929 votes, or 46.98 percent. Lee’s term will be for two years and begins this October. This is the first time since the election of Lee Young-bok in 1995 that a pragmatic moderate candidate has secured leadership of the Hyundai Motor union.

Progressives in the labor world are shocked at this election’s results, where a pragmatic moderate candidate emphasizing dialogue and tangible benefits rather than struggle has won. Observers are predicting that the emergence of labor leader espousing a moderate pragmatism will have considerable impact not only on labor-management relations at Hyundai Motor but throughout the labor world.

Associates of Kwon, the hard-liner who placed second in the first round of voting, thought their candidate had a chance in the runoff against Lee, the winner of the first vote. Ever since 1995, when Yang Bong-su, a worker in the Ulsan factory, committed suicide by self-immolation in protest of the union’s labor-management collaborationism, hardline candidates have fallen short of moderates in the first election only to come from behind to win in the runoff. However, the magic of a runoff reversal did not happen this time around. In the late stages of the election, Kwon’s camp attempted to turn things around by accusing Lee’s side of toadyism, but voters did not take the bait.

The failure may be attributed to a waning of confidence in the hardline leadership over the past 14 years as morality that had once been the KCTU’s asset, took a direct blow last year and resulted in committee heads having to step down over issues of accounting transparency, and one former head being arrested on charges of improprieties in hiring practices. Fuel was added to the fire when elections for replacement heads had to take place amid wage talks and collective bargaining negotiations. This was the first of this kind of crisis in leadership ability in the KCTU’s 22-year history.

Observers are also suggesting the vote’s results may also reflect disagreement with KMWU. Joint bargaining and joint struggle are the lifeblood for an industry-based union like the KMWU, but Hyundai Motor union members who played the role of the vanguard for the KCTU and KMWU may be growing tired of the frequency of strikes that have been held over the past 14 years. Many members have also been frustrated with the KMWU’s decision to eliminate its current company-based chapters and reorganize them into regional chapters. If company-based chapters disappear, workplace unions nationwide will be merged with respective regional chapters, and may erode the Hyundai Motor union’s independent striking rights and much of its power.

A rough road is expected over the next two years for the KMWU, in which the Hyundai Motor chapter maintains a position as a core company-based union. The Hyundai Motor chapter accounts for about one-third of the KMWU’s 150,000 members and has been a locomotive for the union thus far, and some analysts suggest the effects of the election may effectively hobble the union.

Observers suggest there is little chance of Lee, as the third elected leader of the Hyundai Motor chapter, engaging in extreme actions such as withdrawing from the KMWU. However, in light of his behavior and pledges made to date, there is no question among observers that he will put the brakes on political strikes and anti-government struggles.

Observers are also say the election results suggest KMWU’s plans to protect irregular workers terrified of layoffs by altering the structure by which regular and irregular workers within a large company are organized into separate unions may be in trouble. They suggest the same for KMWU’s plans to strengthen its solidarity and bargaining ability by shifting from a chapter system based on company sites, such as Hyundai Motor, to a regional chapter system. Lee has made it clear that he opposes eliminating the company-based system. Of course, this does not mean that the KMWU will follow along, and because it is impossible to expel the Hyundai Motor union, as the Hyundai Heavy Industries union was expelled in 2004, observers are predicting the continuation of large and small conflicts between the KMWU and the Hyundai Motor union heads.

In looking at the election’s effects on the rest of the South Korean labor world, the mere fact that the Hyundai Motor union, considered synonymous with the nation’s labor movement, has shifted its focus from struggle to moderate pragmatism is causing a psychological withering within progressive camps. If fighting ability weakens for the mainstay KMWU, the KCTU umbrella union will also inevitably lose force.

An official at the KCTU headquarters in Ulsan said, “Just because there has been a change in Hyundai Motor union heads, it does not mean that the union itself is immediately going conservative.” The official added, “However, due to the status and role occupied by the Hyundai Motor union in the progressive labor world, it looks like some changes are inevitable in some aspects of the movement’s orientation towards labor struggle.”

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