hankyoreh

By Noh Hyun-woong, staff reporter

A 22-day-long strike by the Korean Railway Workers’ Union (KRWU) came to an end but has left a bitter aftertaste. A National Assembly body was set up to discuss the matter, but it remains to be seen just what will come of it.

The government and KORAIL continue to insist on a resolution based on “law and order.”

For the public, it’s a moment for coolly taking stock of the gains and losses.

Among civic activists and experts, the positive result most frequently mentioned from the strike was the creation of the National Assembly body, which reflects the positions of labor, management, and the private and public sectors. The argument is that the format is meaningful in and of itself, with experts and the KRWU taking part to ensure the body does not simply become a place for more political wrangling by the ruling and opposition parties.

“If you consider that the labor-management-government committee the government had spearheaded was basically just a paper tiger, we really haven’t seen any cases where everyone - politicians, the government, workers, and experts - have gotten together to try to figure things out,” said Kim Cheol, a researcher at the Public Policy Institute for People (PPIP).

“It’s welcome in the sense that we now have a place for real discussions to take place,” Kim added.

But signs point to a different mood beneath the surface. Many are arguing the discussion body was a solution accepted reluctantly by the KRWU after the strike petered out amid a heavy counteroffensive from the administration and conservative media.

In particular, they note that if the ruling Saenuri Party (NFP) and administration shrug off any substantive discussions there, it could end up a deliberative body in name only.

Indeed, an official at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) cautioned against expecting too much from the committee. “We respect the legislature’s discussions toward a long-term railway development plan, but the executive is not going to be able to accept any concrete demands that violate the principle of separation of powers,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

“The executive has made it clear what its principles and perspective are,” the official added.

The administration and Korail have no apparent plans to back off on their strict policy of a “law and order” response to KRWU calling off the strike.

The union‘s biggest achievement with the strike may have been highlighting widespread public opinion opposed to railway privatization. Many experts took note of how strong the public response to the strike was.

“It was surprising to see how a single union’s strike could shape public views toward the entire idea of privatization,” said Choi Hee-gap, an economics professor at Ajou University.

“In 2008, it was mainly political opposition to President Lee Myung-bak that drove the candlelight protests [against US beef imports],” Choi added. “This time, popular opinion took shape around a strike.”

Oh Geon-ho, a researcher at the Global Political Economy Institute, observed, “When people talk about the National Assembly creating a way out of the strike, they’re only looking at the political role the legislature played.”

“What caused the National Assembly to take action was public opinion, and the KRWU strike was clearly the epicenter for that opinion,” Oh added.

The strike brought its share of losses - most notably, said experts, a loss of trust in the administration.

“From the administration’s perspective, it’s got to hurt that most of the public didn’t agree even after the president herself came out to say that what Korail was doing wasn’t privatization,” said Park Heung-su, a guest researcher at PPIP.

The long-simmering conflict between KRWU and Korail remains something to be resolved. A KRWU source said on condition of anonymity, “It may look like they had no choice in the matter because the MLIT kept pressing, but the company was completely one-sided and unbending.”

“Even now, despite the bipartisan agreement, management is still going to extremes, rejecting working-level negotiations and taking disciplinary action,” the source said.

KRWU has said it plans to continue the fight against Korail’s response on the ground even after the workers return to their posts.

Some observers are calling for greater reflection from the political opposition and civil society. “Civil society and the opposition parties need to be thinking about how proactive they really were before the strike about questioning the railway privatization push. This issue came up in the summer, but they didn’t make any real moves then,” Oh said.

“Right now, the privatization controversy is entering a second round, without any resolution,” Oh added. “Civil society and experts, including the political opposition, need to take this issue into the public sphere and be more specific with their criticisms.”

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