hankyoreh

By Lee Jung-gook, staff reporter

A civic group is being established to protect the rights of workers at Samsung, which has a “no-union” policy. Samsung has thrown up numerous roadblocks to the establishment of labor unions at the company. As a result, the chaebol has been accused of disregarding the basic rights of its workers. This is the first time that a civic group has been set up in South Korea to deal with the labor issues of a single company.

The Samsung Labor Rights Guardian, which until now had been working for the improvement of the rights of workers in the Samsung Group through its Preparatory Committee, announced on Dec. 8 that it would be holding its official launch ceremony at the Catholic Building in the Myeongdong neighborhood of Seoul on Dec. 10.

The watchdog group’s president will be Cho Dong-mun, professor of sociology at the Catholic University of Korea. Cho, who is the author of “Korean Society Has Questions for Samsung”, has been researching the issue of Samsung oppressing its workers.

The watchdog group will also have two co-leaders. One is Kwon Yeong-guk, a lawyer and head of the labor committee for MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society, and the other is Shin Seung-cheol, chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).

The watchdog group announced that its main areas of activity would be increasing public awareness of the reality of labor rights at Samsung, providing labor rights counseling for Samsung workers, supporting the organization of labor unions, and researching labor rights at Samsung. Also noteworthy is the group’s plans to develop a separate labor index titled the Samsung Labor Rights Index, compiled through empirical research about Samsung workers.

“It is true that there are some areas for which we should be proud of Samsung, including the remarkable results it has achieved in the smartphone market,” said Cho. “But Korean society tends to only focus on the positive side of Samsung. Now is the time for us to also look at the dark side of Samsung, including the continuing allegations of labor oppression at the company. I believe that it is of great significance for Korean society to simply show that it is not ignoring the oppressed workers at Samsung but is instead taking active steps to stand with them.”

The watchdog group will begin its official activity on Dec. 11, the day after the launch ceremony. On that day, it will hold a press conference in front of the Samsung Group headquarters in the Seocho neighborhood of Seoul for the publication of the Asia Report for Samsung Workers. The report is a compilation of stories about the struggles faced by people employed at Samsung branches in various locations in Asia.

In addition, the group will be launching a series of biweekly debates that will be held through Feb. 2014 on the theme of the corporate management structure and the accumulation of power in the Samsung group.

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