Dae Woo Motor
Korean workers battle for their jobs
By Scott
Scheffer
Hundreds of workers facing layoffs from their jobs at Dae
Woo Motors held off the police during a three-day occupation
inside the gates of the auto manufacturer's main plant at
Pupyon, south Korea this week.
The electrifying action responded to the layoff of 1,750
workers at the behest of General Motors, whose management wants
to buy Dae Woo. GM demands that one-third of the auto workers
be fired before they sign the deal.
Three hundred workers began the occupation the night of Feb.
16. The next morning, when police refused to let other Dae Woo
workers join their comrades, the occupiers fought back with
steel pipes and threw metal barricades and stones. They held
the riot-gear-clad police at bay so that 10 more workers were
able to join their fight.
Fifty workers from other plants also sneaked inside Feb. 17
to help. Later, still more workers fought the police outside
the gates with pipes and firebombs in a clash that lasted an
hour and a half.
On Feb. 18, the police obtained arrest warrants for 30 union
leaders who the government says organized the strike. South
Korea's anti-labor legal system outlaws strikes. One leader was
arrested but the police were reluctant to storm the plant that
day with only the 1,800 police they had available.
After bolstering their forces to 4,000, the cops moved in on
Feb. 19 and arrested hundreds. But not without another long
hard battle. As workers fought back heroically again with steel
pipes, rocks, and by spraying the police with fire
extinguishers, shouts of "Guarantee our right to survive" could
be heard.
Police sprayed the workers with fire hoses. The strikers
replied with industrial-size water hoses from inside the gates.
Finally, the police dislodged them and arrested around 100, but
many others escaped by climbing over the walls surrounding the
plant.
Dae Woo collapsed when the capitalist crisis of
overproduction hit Asia in 1997. When the International
Monetary Fund extended loans to the south Korean government to
"bail them out," the IMF demanded massive restructuring of
banking and of industry. The restructuring has meant the loss
of thousands of jobs.
In a statement about the Dae Woo struggle, the Korean
Confederation of Trades Unions demanded to know what the
government is doing "to avoid the death sentence-like layoffs."
It called for the sale to GM to be scrapped, and vowed to
continue the fight.
"We will mobilize all our forces and engage in the struggle
along with Dae Woo Motor's union," the KCTU statement read.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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