hankyoreh

who worked for EG Group

More and more workers are committing suicide and perishing from illness in the battle against layoffs and labor union suppressions.

A recent rash of suicides could represent a disturbing trend among workers despairing over a feeble safety net and societal apathy to their plight.

Yang Woo-kwon, 50, was found dead on May 10 after suffering from depression over the course of being fired and reinstated after the establishment of a union at POSCO’s Gwangyang steel plant in South Jeolla Province, where he worked for a subcontractor. Yang was originally dismissed in April 2011. He returned in May of last year, but later complained of mistreatment by fellow workers after the company gave him nothing to do.

“I want to go to the place I used to work, even if I’m food for the birds,” he wrote in a suicide note. “I hope you will band together and fight to the end to win on the full-time employment suits and the layoff issue.”

More tragic news followed the day after Yang‘s death. Bae Jae-hyeong, a 44-year-old worker at Hydis Technology in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, took his own life on May 11. Bae, who had been battling to oppose layoffs, left a note reading, “I hope my comrades fight to the end and win. I’m sorry I couldn’t do it with you.”

Hydis, which is owned by the Taiwanese company E Ink Holdings, dismissed 79 of its 377 workers on March 31, with a number of others persuaded to leave voluntarily.

Bae, a former Hydis chapter head at the Korean Metal Workers’ Union, was not one of the workers laid off, but he had fought with the union to oppose the measures. He had been unreachable for six days since May 4, when he was told by the Hydis president that the company would “press civil and criminal charges, including damage claims” if its voluntary resignation measures were not accepted.

“Two workers who fought harder than anyone to protect survival rights took their own lives in as many days,” the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions said in a statement.

“This was a societal homicide irresponsibly abetted by big business and the government,” the confederation said.

On May 7, Jin Deok-jin passed away from a heart attack at the age of 55. Jin, a worker at the Saengtak makgeolli (Korean rice beer) company in Busan, had been on strike for over a year to demand improvements to poor working conditions. Like many other Saengtaek manufacturers, he was a part-time, irregular worker.

The irregular workers were earning just 1.3 million to 2 million won (US$1,190-1,830) a month, with just one day off. Jin fought to form a union and went on strike to change the situation. Instead, the company claimed damages amounting to 1.2 billion won (US$1.1 million). One Saengtak worker climbed on an electronic display outside Busan City Hall on Apr. 16 for an aerial protest to alert the public to the injustice.

Experts pointed to a number of factors in the string of worker deaths, including the unions‘ powerlessness, the government’s a pro-employer bias, a lack of societal interest, and inadequate institutions.

“Labor laws don’t protect basic labor rights, there aren’t any politicians speaking for the workers, and the unions are weakening as a result of suppressions and economic crisis,” said Cho Don-moon, a professor at the Catholic University of Korea.

“Workers who are facing extreme pressures without any kind of protections are choosing to end their own lives,” Cho said.

Korea Labour and Society Institute director Roh Kwang-pyo said the deaths were “the result of struggles dragging on and intensifying at a time when there has been an outcry from dismissed workers, irregular workers, and disadvantaged workers, but no institutions or labor-management relations to resolve it.”

“There needs to be some reflection and efforts toward a solution from South Korean society as a whole,” Roh argued.

By Kim Min-kyung, staff reporter

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