hankyoreh

By Sin Dong-myeong, Ulsan correspondent

The men on the electricity pylon shook with each gust of wind. Suspended 50 meters (eight or nine stories) up a skeletal metal structure on the afternoon of Oct. 21, Choe Byeong-seung and Cheon Ui-bong looked as though they might blow away at any moment.

The pylon was located near the Myeongchon Central gate of Hyundai Motor’s factory in Ulsan. Choe, 36, is a former employee of an in-house subcontractor at the automaker; Cheon, 31, is secretary-general of Hyundai Motor temporary workers’ union. They placed themselves in this precarious position to demand the company take action to hire on its illegally employed temporary workers as full-time employees.

“All it takes is a train passing by and it sends a tremor up the pylon,” said Cheon. “It’s scary.”

Choe and Cheon were bound to joints on the pylon with a safety belt, the kind used when bungee jumping. They had been up there for more than four days. Because no movement besides sitting down and standing up was possible, they frequently found themselves losing feeling in their legs.

On Oct. 20, they were visited by Kim Jin-suk of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. In January 2011, Kim launched a 309-day protest on a crane at Hanjin Heavy & Industries shipyard in Busan, but the pylon’s conditions are even worse. At least she had a cockpit to duck into and avoid the elements, as well as a staircase and corridor where she could walk around a bit. The pylon offers no protection from the wind or rain and just enough space for the men to stretch out their legs. The empty spaces between the bars are blocked off by plywood rectangles measuring one by two meters.

“They may look like they have room, but it’s a very tight space,” Kim said. “If there are heavy winds or rain, it could be very dangerous.”

On Oct. 17, Hyundai Motor sent hired security workers up the pylon to bring Choe and Cheon down. No safety devices were put in place to break a fall.

“Both the temporary workers protesting up here and the security workers trying to bring us down will die if they fall,” Choe said. “You have to wonder if Hyundai Motor has any common sense at all.”

There is also the risk of electrocution: the pylon has a high-tension current running through it.

“The forecast is calling for rain on Monday,” said an official with the Hyundai Motor temporary workers’ union. “If there’s also lightning, there’s a danger of electrocution. We’re considering sending some insulated suits up.”

The same official worried about the plywood, too, saying it was compressed with adhesive and may break apart if it gets wet.

With these risks present, daily physical needs like eating and relieving oneself are hardly bearable. Choe acknowledged it was “embarrassing” to do such things in the open, but laughed it off. “It’s less comfortable than on the ground, but it’s doable,” he said.

While all this is going on, the automaker has been at work pressuring the men’s families. On the evening of Oct. 18, one day after they launched their protest, Cheon’s mother was visited at her Uiseong, North Gyeongsang province home by the president of his subcontractor firm and a Hyundai Motor employee. If Cheon came down from the pylon, he could get a full-time job, she was reportedly told.

Cheon said, “I called my mother and told her, ‘It will only be worse if I come down from here. I’ll come down later and we take a trip somewhere quiet.’ But she was still very worried.”

Cheon is also called several times a day by friends who say the Uiseong Police Station has been calling them and asking them to help talk him down.

What keeps Choe and Cheon going is the desire to work.

Choe, said bitterly “I often look down at the factory, and want to go in there with the people I worked and fought alongside, to do work and have a drink afterwards.”

“There are untold numbers of people who have suffered while Hyundai Motor has refused to accept the ruling to hire its temporary workers as full-time employees,” he continued.

“These are people who defy the law and hurt people in the process,” he added. “I can’t let them win.”

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