hankyoreh

Cha Gwang-ho, 45, started working for Korea Synthetic Fiber in 1995, when he was 25 years old. His job was making polyester thread, an ingredient for manufacturing apparel.

Korea Synthetic Fiber was in dire financial straits. In 2005, it began restructuring; by 2007, it was bankrupt.

When the company was acquired by Starflex in 2010, Cha‘s job was transferred to the new company. In Apr. 2011, the company changed its name to Star Chemical. But Cha would not keep earning a paycheck for long.

In Jan. 2013, Star Chemical shut down operations at its factory, citing poor business results. A month later, the company announced that it was going out of business and notified the remaining 29 workers that they would be terminated.

Some of these workers received compensation and settled with the company on May 26, 2014. Cha was one of 11 workers who rejected the deal. The night after the settlement was signed, he climbed up a 45-meter-tall smokestack.

On Apr. 1, it was still winter atop the smokestack, too high up to smell the spring flowers. Cha is in the 310th day of his aerial protest.

Cha has now surpassed the previous record for longest aerial protest, which was set by Kim Jin-suk, a member of the leadership committee at the Busan branch of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). Kim held out for 309 days atop a 35-meter-tall crane to protest layoffs at Hanjin Heavy Industries.

“I’m trying not to get too emotional, but my heart is broken. I’m looking forward to the day when this is all over and I can sit down to share a meal with my family. I didn’t come here to set some kind of record,” Cha told the Hankyoreh in a telephone interview, his voice breaking off at the end.

At the same time, the Korean Metal Workers‘ Union (KMWU) - the union Cha is a member of - was holding a demonstration in front of the office of Starflex, the parent company of Star Chemical, in Seoul. Protestors called on the South Korean government and Kim Se-gwon, president of Star Chemical and Starflex, to take steps to resolve the situation before it turned ugly.

Cha’s routine atop the smokestack is the same day in and day out. He starts the day with breakfast and spends the rest of the morning reading books, taking phone calls, and browsing Facebook.

In the afternoon, he works out, trying to undo the damage that his long months on the smokestack have done to his health. One lap around his camp is 25 meters, and he circles the camp more than 100 times.

At 8 pm, Cha speaks with his wife on the phone and then writes a journal entry on Facebook. A regular routine is the only way to endure the elements. Since the smokestack has no roof, he is exposed to the snow, rain, yellow dust, typhoons, cold, and heat.

From this point forward, every day extends a tragic record that nobody wants. “Before I went up the chimney, I swore not to come down until the conditions were right for us to work again. This is what it takes to get people interested and show their support. If I came down now, there would be nothing to show for it,” Cha said.

“These past 310 days have probably felt a lot longer for Cha Gwang-ho than for us on the ground. It’s really terrible to see him continuing his protest since politicians and civil society are failing to serve as mediators,” said Kim Jin-suk.

By Kim Min-kyung, staff reporter

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