Early in the morning of 26 December 1996, as South Korea slept, the ruling New Korean Party met secretly. In seven minutes they passed the most draconian labour legislation South Korean workers had encountered since the end of military rule in 1987.
When workers awoke, a new labour law had been introduced which gives big business greater freedoms in sacking workers and setting working hours. A ban on the formation of two trade unions in any one workplace was introduced until the year 2002, along with the outlawing of new 'umbrella' labour groups until the year 2000.
A new National Security Act was also introduced which gives the Korean CIA greater powers. Although ostensibly justified by the incursion of a North Korean submarine into South Korean waters last year, many workers believe the new act is meant to compliment the labour laws and will be used to crush internal dissent and re-discipline the workers with an iron fist.
President Kim Young-Sam rationalised the introduction of this legislation. The country, he stated, needs to endure a period of radical change if it wants to compete on the global market - fending off, for example, the threat from low-cost economies such as China. Last year, rising labour costs and slower economic growth resulted in a £12.5 billion (U.K. Sterling) trade deficit and a drop in the profits of quoted companies by 40 percent.
The new legislation came within two weeks of South Korea making it into the "big man's club"—the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which includes all of the leading industrialised countries. Ironically, a condition of membership is the recognition of certain labour rights.
Needless to say, hundreds of thousands of workers immediately took to the streets in a national stoppage - the largest in the country's post-1945 history. Huge demonstrations and sit-ins involved running battles with the security forces.
As can be imagined, the chaebol (the country's giant industrial conglomerates) were the hardest hit, losing £640 million (U.K.Sterling) in the first week of industrial action, bringing to a total of £2.7 billion lost to similar action throughout 1996. This loss had prompted the South Korean capitalist class to embark on a massive transfer of funds into the first world economies and cheaper labour markets of developing countries.
The South Korean capitalist class have come to realise that the average eight percent annual growth they have enjoyed since 1960 has peaked. Profits can only be maintained by following the example set elsewhere—by hammering the workers still further and investing in countries with low productivity costs where workers have fewer rights.
What becomes of the ongoing unrest in South Korea is anyone's guess. One thing is certain though. It is high time the workers there, as well as their counterparts world-wide, realised they are exactly "something to be bought and sold—a commodity" which one Korean labour leader recently claimed they were not.
Author: J. Bissett