hankyoreh

August 8. (by Shin So-young

By Sin Dong-myeong, Ulsan correspondent

“For the past ten years, Hyundai Motor chairman Chung Mong-koo has been committing the crime of hiring illegal dispatch workers. Why hasn’t he been held to account at all?”

The question came from Choe Byeong-seung, 37, soon after he and fellow protestor Cheon Ui-bong, 32, came down on the afternoon of Aug. 8 from a 23-meter-tall electricity transmission tower where they had been perched for 296 days. They were demanding that the automaker’s in-house subcontracting workers be recognized as illegal and given full-time positions.

As he took the microphone upon descending from the tower, Choe’s voice rang out loud and clear as a kind of release for all the fatigue of his months-long aerial protest.

“It’s time for prosecutors to go in now, and if they find any wrongdoing, Chung should get what he deserves,” Choe declared.

“The Korean Metal Workers’ Union made a complaint against him in 2010 for violating the Dispatch Workers act, and law professors made their own complaint,” he continued. “Here we are, three years later, and the prosecutors say they’re ‘still investigating.’”

Cheon said he was following his time on the tower with service as secretary for the temporary workers’ union chapter.

“I plan to clean myself up and return to the front lines, fighting to my last breath for an end to illegal dispatch work and the arrest of chairman Chung Mong-koo,” he vowed.

Cheon grimaced with pain in his legs from the long protest, but managed to walk with the help of fellow workers.

Choe and Cheon descended via crane, helped down by five people, including Korean Confederation of Trade Unions deputy chief for temporary workers Ju Bong-hee, who had gone up in the crane beforehand. Below the tower, a crowd of around 500 assembled, including workers with the KMWU Hyundai Motor temporary worker chapter and KCTU; lawmakers Shim Sang-jung, Kim Mi-hee, and Chang Ha-na; the planning team for the Hope Bus campaign; and students coordinating the “Great Unity March” for the Korean Association of University Students. Shouts of thanks and support rang out from the crowd.

At around 2 pm, Choe and Cheon were escorted by patrol wagon to Ulsan Central Police Station for questioning. Arrest warrants had been issued for both of them for obstruction of operations in connection with strikes by temporary workers (Choe in 2010 and Cheon in 2012).

Before they came down, the Hyundai Motor temporary workers’ union staged a press conference to call on the company to present plans for resuming special negotiations on illegal dispatch workers and hiring on all such workers full-time. It also demanded that prosecutors immediately indict and arrest Chung and asked the administration of President Park Geun-hye to call off public authorities and guarantee independent talks by labor and management.

“The protest impressed on the public just how serious a crime illegal use of dispatch workers is, and it also showed the shamelessness of the chaebol that act like they’re above the law,” the chapter said.

“Mr. Choe and Mr. Cheon may have swallowed their anger and come down from the tower, but this will not stop the powerful wave they set in motion, which will bring about an end to illegal dispatch employment and the hiring of these workers to full-time positions,” it continued.

Pastor Jeong Jin-woo, head of the National Council of Churches in Korea human rights center and a representative of the Hope Bus planning team, said the Hyundai Motor temporary worker issue is not for the company or its workers alone, but “something the entire public faces in this crisis where chaebol rule above the law and constitutional principles are ignored.”

He added that the next fleet of Hope Buses would go ahead with their scheduled trip to Ulsan on Aug. 31.

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