hankyoreh

chapter head Kim Sun-young

By Kim Min-kyoung, staff reporter

On July 14, 2013, 380 workers came together on a rainy day for the inaugural meeting of the Samsung Electronics Service labor union (a chapter of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union). These workers perform after-service repairs on a wide range of Samsung products, but are employees of subcontractors of Samsung, not Samsung itself. Lee Yong-hee, 36, was there too.

Lee joined the union out of a sense of fidelity after he learned that branch manager Wie Young-il was fired from Dongrae Service Center in Busan for his efforts to establish a union there. He then decided to add his strength to the union. July 14 proved to be the day that Lee’s life changed forever. “I had no idea that so many people from all around the country would be joining us that day. Seeing service workers from other branches go right up to their bosses after registering with the union and state their demands, I realized how empowering a support system a labor union could be.”

But life as a union member has not always been fair or easy. Lee has had to put up with pressure from the subcontractor company that employs him to leave the union, and has witnessed the suicides of three colleagues, including Choi Jong-bum and Yeom Ho-seok. He spent 41 days participating in the union’s general strike, which included a round-the-clock protest sleeping on plastic sheets in front of the Samsung Electronics Headquarters in Seoul’s Seocho district. And while overall membership for the Samsung Electronics Service labor union has increased about fourfold, from 380 to 1,500, membership at Lee’s Yeongdeungpo district branch, where the union faced the most vigorous suppression, has decreased from 70 to 24 members.

Lee and two other Yeongdeungpo branch members met with a Hankyoreh reporter on July 13, and spoke of the hardships they faced this past year. Chapter president Kim Seon-young, 39, was arrested and incarcerated during the union protest in front of the Samsung Electronics office. Lee Joo-ho, 27, who joined the company in 2013, revealed, “The subcontractor company I work for has refused to sign an employment contract unless I quit the union, so I am still working without a contract.”

What has sustained these workers through hard times is their “hope for a better life.” Kim said, “When I started the round-the-clock protest in front of the Samsung Electronics Headquarters, I was determined not to go back until we achieved the goal of our collective agreement. Everyone was resolved to see working reality change at their own hands, because we could not trust a wage system so lacking in transparency, nor the president of the subcontractor firm we worked for.”

Before negotiation breakthroughs, subcontractor workers were paid in the form of commission per repair job, and there was a serious wage discrepancy between the peak season (June through August) and the slow season. Furthermore, the previous wage system among “Samsung Electronics, Samsung Electronics Service, and various subcontractor companies” lacked transparency and was excessively complicated. Even the president of one of Samsung’s subcontractor companies could not give a clear answer as to how wages for Samsung’s indirectly employed workers are decided.

On June 28, Samsung Electronics Service labor union and Samsung management (notorious for its no-union policy) came to a tentative agreement on a range of issues, from a base monthly living wage of 1.2 million won (US$1,178) to bonuses per repair and a guarantee on union activities. These benefits came into effect on July 1, but details such as wage levels at individual service centers have not yet been worked out, and there is still much collective bargaining left to do. “We have certainly made great progress, but there are many parts of the agreement that are ambiguous at best, and the living wage we’ve negotiated is still far from ideal,” said Kim.

Lee added, “This is really only the first step. From now on, we hope to continually move forwards, never backwards.”

Lee Nam-shin, director of the Korean Contingent Workers’ Center, said, “The Samsung Electronics Service labor union’s efforts are significant because they have opened up the way to address and rectify the rampant practice of indirect, irregular employment as well as Samsung’s no-union policy.” He went on to say, “The progress we’ve seen thus far was only possible thanks to the spirited efforts of workers like the Yeongdeungpo branch union members, who stayed strong despite a unreasonable company culture of labor union suppression.”

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