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June 12. The workers were laid off July 2007 and have been engaged in a six-year-long court battle. (By Shin So-young

By Kim Min-kyoung, Staff Reporter

“Appeal No. 2014-C-12843 for verification of job termination invalidation is hereby dismissed.”

In less than ten seconds, a 2,689-day battle over layoffs came to an end. As the First Civil Division of the Supreme Court under Hon. Ko Young-hwan read its verdict at 10:16 a.m. on June 12, Lim Jae-chun let out a brief groan. The 51-year-old member of the Cort Guitars chapter of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union afterwards remained quiet as he stepped towards the front door of the courthouse. Waiting there was 48-year-old Chapter Head Lee In-geun.

“Was it dismissed?” Lee asked Lim, expressing wishful thinking as he had already received news of the case loss via Kakao Talk instant messaging service. Unable to sleep on the eve of what has become the last day of the struggle, Lee had refused to enter the courtroom, saying he could not bear to see the Court‘s ruling. Nearby, follow union members wiped away tears from their eyes.

On July 10, 2007, Cort Guitars closed its Daejeon factory citing management reasons, and let go of forty workers in the process. For the next seven years, the workers shared their plight locally by holding rallies, aerial protests, hunger strikes, music concerts, and sending delegates to the U.S. and Japan. In court, they asserted the unfairness of their termination. At one point, they entertained hopes they might be reinstated. In November 2009, Seoul High Court, under Hon. Mun Yong-seon, overturned the first ruling and declared the layoffs invalid on the grounds that the company had been turning a financial profit.

The worker’s hopes for reinstatement shifted when the Supreme Court Feb. 2012, under then-Justice Ahn Dae-hee, overturned the Seoul High Court ruling, arguing that “impending management crisis” could be grounds for lay-off. Seoul High Court Judge Jeong Jong-gwan recognized the legitimacy of the layoffs according to the Supreme Court ruling on Jan. 10. The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal that followed on June 12.

Lee, who had held a one-man, twenty-four-hour protest in front of the Supreme Court on May 19 in hopes of a miracle, says, “I did not have high hopes.” Economically strapped and exhausted after the layoff, Lee‘s family left, but he could not stop fighting. The sense of betrayal was too much, he said. “I felt really dejected to think that I had spent all that time working so hard for a company that would just let me go overnight,” Lee recalled. “If I gave up, then the company would get everything it wanted, and I did not want to just let them off the hook.” At a time when Cor-Tek was ignoring Lee’s demands and he had nowhere to turn for mediation, continuing the battle in court was his last hope, however, the six years of waiting came to a bitter end in the ruling against the workers‘ appeal.

At a press conference after the verdict, Lee joined other participants in chanting the names of the Supreme Court Justices responsible for the ruling, “Jo Hee-dae, Yang Chang-soo, Ko Young-han, Kim Chang-suk.” Lee declared, “Today will go down in history as the day they opened the door wide for layoffs.”

Lee’s stony face gave way to a bitter smile as he sang along to a song of consolation by Singer Yeon Young-seok, “From morning to night, I worked myself to death, and now they‘re telling me to go. . . .” Lee said, “I am not going to let myself get down or give up hope; I hate to lose.” The courtroom battle over the layoffs may have ended that day, but Lee In-geun refused defeat.

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