Korean Railway Workers' Union Rights under Attack from the Neoliberal State

Abstract

railway industry in the neoliberal direction. The KRWU came out on strike to protest against the government’s unilateral action on 9 December. The KRWU’s strike action was carried out in accordance with the legal process of labour dispute, including the National Labour Relations Commission’s mediation process, union members’ strike ballot (turnout rating 91.3 percent and approval rating 80.0 percent), and restriction of industrial action in essential public services. Park’s government, however , declared that the strike was illegal and took hard-line steps to break the KRWU’s strike. The government threatened to discharge 8,565 union members taking part in the strike action and ordered the striking workers to return to work. It also issued arrest warrants for 194 KRWU officials, including union leaders. The government and Korail management sent in strike breakers (including army forces) to replace strikers and filed a legal tort claim against the KRWU, requesting payment of a colossal amount of damages in compensation (16.2 billion Korean Won, approximately amounting to 13 million euro). The police raided the union offices and arrested union leaders, while the Korail management recruited 660 strike-breakers. Moreover, on 22 December a force of 5,500 police, without a warrant, attacked the headquarters of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), a national centre of democratic Korean unions with which the KRWU is affiliated, in order to arrest KRWU leaders. The raid by the police troops failed to catch the union leaders, and instead resulted in the arrest of 135 KCTU members who attempted to block their entry. Despite the union’s strong opposition and growing public concern, the government granted business license to the SR for running KTX lines, as intended. The police attack on the KCTU headquarters as well as the government’s unilateral restructuring action triggered rage amongst the organised labour community and widespread criticism from civil society movements. On 28 December, the KCTU and its affiliates waged anti-Park demonstrations as a means to protest against the government ’s union suppression and railway privatisation , in which many civil NGOs and opposing parties participated. The Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU), another national centre, announced its decision to stop policy dialogue with Park’s government and joined the KCTU-led demonstrations. Around 100,000 people gathered at the KCTU-led anti-Park demonstrations on December 28th. International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and many national centres of foreign countries, such as TUC (UK), CUT (Brazil), ACTU (Australia), and TCTU (Taiwan), sent their strong solidarity support for the struggle of the KCTU and KRWU against Park’s government. Amnesty International also criticised Park’s govWhen railworkers took strike action to protest against the privatisation and break-up of the railways the government declared that the strike was illegal, threatened thousands of dismissals, and ordered all strikers to return to work INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 18 Volume 22 Issue 3 2015 BYOUNG-HOON LEE is a professor at the department of Sociology, Chung-Ang University in Seoul, South Korea. T he railway system in South Korea has been a core target of neoliberal restructuring pursuing market competition and privatisation since the late 1990s. The Korean railway system was run by a governmental organisation named the Railway Office until 2003. The Railway Office, however, was divided and transformed into two public enterprises, respectively accountable for the operation (Korail) and construction (KRNetwork) of the railway system, in accordance with the government’s railway restructuring roadmap formulated in 2004. The conservative government (2008~2012), led by President Myung-bak Lee, took a public stance on the privatisation of the railway system, but did not produce the intended outcome, owing to the Korean Railway Workers Union (KRWU)’s strong opposition , including its seven-day strike action. President Geun-hye Park, the eldest daughter of Jung-hee Park, who was the despotic president of the Korean developmental regime (1961-1979), was elected in December 2012, drumming up strong support from conservative political groups and elderly people. During the period of the presidential campaigns, in responding to the KRWU’s open inquiry concerning her policy plan for the railway system, President Park made clear that she opposed the privatisation of...