ckaihatsu
15th July 2011, 02:04
[LaborTech] First Korean Samsung union anticipates struggle for survival
First Korean Samsung union anticipates struggle for survival
The prior establishment of pro-management and ghost unions may hinder the unions collective bargaining process
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_business/487338.html
Samsung workers who petitioned to form a union submit an establishment notice for the union, July 13 (Photo by Ryu Woo-jong)
By Nam Jong-young
A labor union made up of four Samsung Everland employees filed an establishment notice Wednesday, becoming the Samsung Groups first union led by workplace employees.
The union elected Park Won-woo as chairman and Cho Jang-hee as vice chairman, and appointed Kim Sung-hwan as a full-time Direction Committee member. Kim is president of the Samsung Group Union, an outsider union that has supported the Samsung unions establishment from the periphery.
We prepared for this after agreeing three years ago to form a democratic union, said Chairman Park. The union will work to protect the rights and interests of its members and defend democratic unions.
While there are currently nine unions at Samsung Group affiliates, all are either pro-company unions or inactive ghost unions. These unions effectively prevented the establishment of democratic unions at the company under the old single union system. Because of this, the implementation this month of a system allowing multiple trade unions for single companies posed a major threat to the group and its myth of being a group without unions. The new system enables employees to form a new union even if a ghost union already exists.
But the labor community is predicting that the company will try to use the same heavy pressure tactics as before to trigger a union collapse.
Direction Committee member Kim Sung-hwan said, Samsung management also applied pressure, both tangible and intangible, on the vice president during this latest union establishment process.
The Samsung Group Union is a so-called outsider union that has not been granted permission for its establishment.
In past years, the group took advantage of provisions prohibiting multiple trade unions to block the formation of member-led democratic unions. At the time of 1987s Great Labor Struggle, seven hundred employees of Samsung Shipbuilding (todays Samsung Heavy Industries) filed a union establishment notice that was rejected due to the existence of another union created by just seven people with company support. Similar means were used to block the establishment of a Samsung S1 Union in May 2000 and a Samsung Plaza Union in September 2003.
Controversy has also raged over the use of incentives, intimidation tactics, and even abduction against employees who attempted to establish unions. The Samsung Group Union claimed that workers with Samsung SDI in 2000, Samsung Capital in 2001, and Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI again in 2004 were tailed, confined, and kidnapped by Samsung Group employees under the pretense of interviews after attempting to set up unions, and that in some cases the employees were subjected to brutality. Last year, Samsung Electronics employee Park Jong-tae was fired after posting a message on the company bulletin board stating the need for a labor union.
There is no way of knowing yet whether the newly launched union will be incapacitated by such a process, or whether Samsung will show a new approach to labor relations for the multiple trade union era. The first test will be how Samsung Everland responds to the unions bargaining request.
Prior to the unions launch, a pro-company union was established at Samsung Everland in late June, with a membership of four. The labor world interpreted this as a deliberate attempt to check the actions of future multiple unions through stipulations on bargaining channel consolidation. In cases where multiple unions are present, negotiations with the company must be conducted through a joint bargaining team.
Attention is turning to whether the union will be capable of leading to the establishment of democratic unions at other Samsung affiliates. The Korean Confederation of Trade Union (KCTU) and others have reportedly been engaged in a considerable amount of organizational work behind the scenes.
One KCTU official said, With the arrival of the multiple trade union era, we have definitely met with circumstances favorable to union establishment, but our goal is to establish them carefully and ensure their substance with a larger number of members.
Samsung Group downplays influence of new union
Observers say designating the union affiliate-level is Samsungs attempt to devalue and isolate the union
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_business/487337.html
By Kim Jae-seob, Senior Staff Writer
Samsung is designating the new union as the Samsung Everland Union so that any response comes from Samsung Everland. A Samsung official said, We decided that Samsung Everland should respond to it based on the internal determination that a response at the group level would mean getting caught up in labor sector tactics.
Samsung is also predicted a strong likelihood that the establishment will amount to nothing more than a tempest in a teapot owing to the limitations of an extra-company union.
Internally, however, some observers are expressing concerns about the possible repercussions. The concern is that employees who feel disgruntled with the company or threatened under the anti-corruption measures and project adjustments currently being pursued at the direction of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee could gravitate toward unions. Another factor is the difficulty of labor union monitoring at a time when Lee is preparing to hand over management rights to his children.
For this reason, Samsung has been at work for some time establishing response measures based on the determination that the permission of multiple trade unions would be a major factor in management from the second half of 2011. Although the establishment of labor unions cannot be prevented because they are legally permitted, the strategy to date has been to prevent the unions from obtaining cooperation. The idea has been to preemptively resolve areas where the union would be expected to play a leading role so that employees would not feel the need for a union.
As measures to achieve this, Samsung paid 200 thousand won ($189) each in vacation allowances to all affiliate company employees for the first time this year, with the stated goal of promoting the domestic demand economy, and recalibrated its performance-based pay calculation methods to reduce the perception of exclusion among employees.
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First Korean Samsung union anticipates struggle for survival
The prior establishment of pro-management and ghost unions may hinder the unions collective bargaining process
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_business/487338.html
Samsung workers who petitioned to form a union submit an establishment notice for the union, July 13 (Photo by Ryu Woo-jong)
By Nam Jong-young
A labor union made up of four Samsung Everland employees filed an establishment notice Wednesday, becoming the Samsung Groups first union led by workplace employees.
The union elected Park Won-woo as chairman and Cho Jang-hee as vice chairman, and appointed Kim Sung-hwan as a full-time Direction Committee member. Kim is president of the Samsung Group Union, an outsider union that has supported the Samsung unions establishment from the periphery.
We prepared for this after agreeing three years ago to form a democratic union, said Chairman Park. The union will work to protect the rights and interests of its members and defend democratic unions.
While there are currently nine unions at Samsung Group affiliates, all are either pro-company unions or inactive ghost unions. These unions effectively prevented the establishment of democratic unions at the company under the old single union system. Because of this, the implementation this month of a system allowing multiple trade unions for single companies posed a major threat to the group and its myth of being a group without unions. The new system enables employees to form a new union even if a ghost union already exists.
But the labor community is predicting that the company will try to use the same heavy pressure tactics as before to trigger a union collapse.
Direction Committee member Kim Sung-hwan said, Samsung management also applied pressure, both tangible and intangible, on the vice president during this latest union establishment process.
The Samsung Group Union is a so-called outsider union that has not been granted permission for its establishment.
In past years, the group took advantage of provisions prohibiting multiple trade unions to block the formation of member-led democratic unions. At the time of 1987s Great Labor Struggle, seven hundred employees of Samsung Shipbuilding (todays Samsung Heavy Industries) filed a union establishment notice that was rejected due to the existence of another union created by just seven people with company support. Similar means were used to block the establishment of a Samsung S1 Union in May 2000 and a Samsung Plaza Union in September 2003.
Controversy has also raged over the use of incentives, intimidation tactics, and even abduction against employees who attempted to establish unions. The Samsung Group Union claimed that workers with Samsung SDI in 2000, Samsung Capital in 2001, and Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI again in 2004 were tailed, confined, and kidnapped by Samsung Group employees under the pretense of interviews after attempting to set up unions, and that in some cases the employees were subjected to brutality. Last year, Samsung Electronics employee Park Jong-tae was fired after posting a message on the company bulletin board stating the need for a labor union.
There is no way of knowing yet whether the newly launched union will be incapacitated by such a process, or whether Samsung will show a new approach to labor relations for the multiple trade union era. The first test will be how Samsung Everland responds to the unions bargaining request.
Prior to the unions launch, a pro-company union was established at Samsung Everland in late June, with a membership of four. The labor world interpreted this as a deliberate attempt to check the actions of future multiple unions through stipulations on bargaining channel consolidation. In cases where multiple unions are present, negotiations with the company must be conducted through a joint bargaining team.
Attention is turning to whether the union will be capable of leading to the establishment of democratic unions at other Samsung affiliates. The Korean Confederation of Trade Union (KCTU) and others have reportedly been engaged in a considerable amount of organizational work behind the scenes.
One KCTU official said, With the arrival of the multiple trade union era, we have definitely met with circumstances favorable to union establishment, but our goal is to establish them carefully and ensure their substance with a larger number of members.
Samsung Group downplays influence of new union
Observers say designating the union affiliate-level is Samsungs attempt to devalue and isolate the union
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_business/487337.html
By Kim Jae-seob, Senior Staff Writer
Samsung is designating the new union as the Samsung Everland Union so that any response comes from Samsung Everland. A Samsung official said, We decided that Samsung Everland should respond to it based on the internal determination that a response at the group level would mean getting caught up in labor sector tactics.
Samsung is also predicted a strong likelihood that the establishment will amount to nothing more than a tempest in a teapot owing to the limitations of an extra-company union.
Internally, however, some observers are expressing concerns about the possible repercussions. The concern is that employees who feel disgruntled with the company or threatened under the anti-corruption measures and project adjustments currently being pursued at the direction of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee could gravitate toward unions. Another factor is the difficulty of labor union monitoring at a time when Lee is preparing to hand over management rights to his children.
For this reason, Samsung has been at work for some time establishing response measures based on the determination that the permission of multiple trade unions would be a major factor in management from the second half of 2011. Although the establishment of labor unions cannot be prevented because they are legally permitted, the strategy to date has been to prevent the unions from obtaining cooperation. The idea has been to preemptively resolve areas where the union would be expected to play a leading role so that employees would not feel the need for a union.
As measures to achieve this, Samsung paid 200 thousand won ($189) each in vacation allowances to all affiliate company employees for the first time this year, with the stated goal of promoting the domestic demand economy, and recalibrated its performance-based pay calculation methods to reduce the perception of exclusion among employees.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "LaborTech" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]
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