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Is Korea's labor culture shifting?
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After a series of scandals including sexual abuse and bribery in recent years, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions faced another setback Friday - the departure of the KT union, the third-largest member and one of its founding members in 1994. The union of the nation's leading telecom company - with 30,000 members - overwhelmingly voted to break away from the hard-line umbrella labor group in a bid to take a "centrist and pragmatic" line. The KCTU's lower IT branch, consisting of 30,535 members, virtually collapsed with the KT union's secession.

After the vote, the KCTU released a brief statement saying it would respect the decision. But it denied any speculation about the crisis of the organization.


"The 30,000 KT members account for only a small fraction of our total 650,000 members. Even though they were founding members, their campaign direction was already separated from ours long time ago," said a KCTU official.

"The speculation that the KCTU's influence is weakening is not an objective view, just a hope among those who want us to be weakened.

"Rather, the situation will be an opportunity to strengthen our solidarity in fighting against the government and company organizations."

The KCTU's flat denial comes from previous experience. Whenever there were withdrawals of major members, like the unions of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and the Incheon subway which departed from the umbrella group in 2004 and early this year, respectively, speculation about a "crisis" was raised, but the KCTU was dealt no serious blow.

However, experts say the labor environment has dramatically changed in recent years and the KCTU also needs to revamp itself.

Because of its hard-line stance, the confederation has been criticized frequently by the government, businesses and conservatives. Especially the current Lee Myung-bak administration has maintained its firm stance on violent labor demonstrations, refusing to negotiate with the KCTU.

Experts predict more member unions distancing themselves from the KCTU's excessive political struggles will turn away from the confederation, possibly bringing about a domino effect on other members.

"The KT union's departure has a symbolic meaning," said Choi Young-ki, research fellow at the Gyeonggi Research Institute, "because it reveals the KCTU failed in setting a proper policy direction and controlling its affiliated unions."

"If it doesn't seek reform to meet the changed labor situation, such a large-scale secession of its members will be repeated," he added.

According to the Ministry of Labor, a total of 658,018 members belonged to the KCTU and 725,014 workers to the Federation of Korea Trade Unions, another umbrella union group, last year. The numbers decreased 3.6 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively, from those in the previous year.

But the number of independent union members increased by 6.6 percent to 282,666, accounting for almost 17 percent of all unionized workers.

Considering the nation's union membership rate is steadily decreasing in recent years, the change in the labor market becomes clearer. After reaching a peak of 19.8 percent membership in 1989, union membership rate has been hovering at 10 percent since 2004.

"A variety of elements in the labor market would drive down the union membership rate in the near future," said Kim Jeong-han, a fellow at the Korea Labor Institute.

While the number of salaried workers has continued to grow, that of manufacturing workers, who have accounted for the biggest share of union members, are expected to decrease with the automation of industries. And new employment will be more focused on the service sector, Kim said.

The increasing number of non-regular workers adds to the gradual decrease in union membership, Kim said. Non-regular workers, who get paid less and receive few benefits, tend to hesitate before joining a labor union for fear of possible disadvantage when they become full-time employees.

He pointed out another reason - most of young members entering the labor market have less interest in the activities of labor unions.

"Those changes in the nation's labor environment will affect the future activities of labor unions and the direction of labor movements," Kim said.

Nevertheless, many experts point out that the KCTU's status will prolong for some time until a new alternative group appears.

Despite some movement to form a consultative body by individual unions, it is unlikely that such an organization will develop into an influential confederation like the KCTU. Experts say that they can solidify temporarily for a specific issue but their alliance would be weaker compared to that of the KCTU, which is based on an ideological agreement.

(jylee@heraldm.com)


By Lee Ji-yoon

2009.07.21
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