hankyoreh

By Kim So-youn　

The drawn out battle at Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction (HHIC), which has faced more than eight months of conflict over layoffs, has taken a new turn with Chairman Cho Nam-ho’s return to South Korea.

The HHIC labor union and its umbrella organization, the Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU), the HHIC management, and the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) announced Wednesday that they would be starting discussions at the Yeongdo shipyard in Busan on Thursday morning over various pressing issues, including the layoffs.

Despite this, the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) has rejected the plan its own leaders had agreed to with opposition parties to hold a hearing on Aug. 17 with Cho attending as a witness.

Analysts said the labor-management-government dialogue now appears to be the only means of approaching a resolution to the HHIC situation, which has developed into a major social and political issue. While differences of opinion remain between labor and management, the labor-management negotiations are likely to carry more weight with Cho taking a role in the foreground. Cho previously remained overseas for 57 days, departing just after being summoned to the National Assembly.

In a written plea released Wednesday, Cho said, “Telling us to unconditionally withdraw the layoff plans, which were an unavoidable choice at a time when recovery was unlikely and the very survival of the company impossible without some minimal degree of personnel restructuring, is no different from telling the company and all its employees to abandon their survival as [the company] returns to a state without competitiveness.”

“When legitimate and legal management activity is thwarted by illegal pressure tactics like illegal aerial protests, demonstrations, and assemblies through the intervention of outside forces in disregard of the agreement existing among the parties involved, this would be the result of abandoning the minimal basic rules that our society must abide by,” Cho continued.

Cho added that the HHIC situation “must not be allowed to become an issue of sloganeering or agitation from outside forces.”

Cho also wrote, “If, through maximal efforts to achieve management normalization within three years, we manage to recover competitiveness and establish a foothold for growth, we will welcome back the members of the Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction family who were forced to leave the company. We also plan to provide full financial support for two children of voluntary retirees and those converted to voluntary retiree status among the 400 people who left due to restructuring, and we pledge to form a development fund for employees and local residents.”

“Contrary to some criticisms, our expansion into Subic was a necessary choice for the sake of competitiveness,” Cho added. “Were it not for Subic, it would have been impossible to guarantee the existence of the Yeongdo shipyard, in light of the present situation.”

“We will definitely not be abandoning the Yeongdo shipyard or leaving Yeongdo in Busan,” Cho stressed.

“This does not mean that I bear no responsibility on the basis of the cause and legal justification for the restructuring in management terms,” he added. “I feel an acute sense of responsibility as a manager and once again offer my apologies, and I also feel it unfortunate that I did not communicate with the different fields and seek their understanding previously.”

“With regard to appearing at the hearing, I will respect the National Assembly’s decision,” he said.

However, during an interview with the Hankyoreh via telephone from a crane within the Yeongdo shipyard, where she is in the 217th day of a sit-in protest, Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) Busan office Direction Committee member Kim Jin-suk, 51, said, “Cho Nam-ho’s press conference was organized to dilute public interest in the layoff issue and smooth over the conflict.”

“I will not come down unless the layoffs are immediately rescinded,” Kim added.

“How can we believe that they will reinstate the dismissed workers in three years’ time when they laid off employees en masse or pressured them to resign even after a February 2010 agreement with the union to halt restructuring, and there are allegations that they deliberately avoided orders over the past three years?” Kim asked. “If they intend to normalize the factory, they first need to reinstate the workers who were laid off.”

“Instead of trying to smooth things over, Chairman Cho should establish substantive measures so that I can come down,” she added.

Regarding Cho’s claim that illegal sit-in protests and demonstrations by outside forces were impeding management activity, Kim said, “It is an insult to the people of South Korea for him to say this after going overseas to avoid a National Assembly hearing, without even holding proper bargaining, and only coming back 53 days later.”

Kim also expressed her clear rejection of arguments from the ruling Grand National Party that she should attend the National Assembly hearing along with Cho, saying, “I am only a union member, and it is right that the representative of an organization should go to the hearing.”

Kim said the GNP and company “seem to be under the impression that the layoff problem will be smoothed over once I come down.”

“They must not try to gloss over the essence of the issue, which is reversing the layoffs,” Kim argued.

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