OH JONG-SAE, president of the organisation committee of the Korean Federation of Hyundai Group Workers Union, was interviewed for Green Left Weekly by JAMES VASSILOPOULOS about the implications for Korean workers of the crash in Asian currencies, and about plans to form a workers' party.
The KFHGWU is an affiliate of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which led a general strike of 600,000 workers in January.
According to Oh, the South Korean stock market and currency have each lost 20% of their value since the beginning of 1997.
Since the crash at the end of October, many corporations in South Korea have been experiencing difficulties. The government has given credit to the country's central bank which is using it to bail-out the big corporations, the chaebols, especially Kia Motors and Samni Special Steel Industries.
One way the government will raise the money for the bail-out is by increasing taxes on working people, Oh said. "Forty-five small businesses are closing per day and many workers are losing their jobs. The official unemployment rate is 8%, but in reality it is at least 12%. Many of these small companies have contracts with the large conglomerates. They are going bankrupt because they can not repay loans."
Kia Motors is the company most in trouble. Oh said that since it was taken over by the government (because of the financial mess it was in), the central bank has really been managing it.
At the end of October, 25,000 workers from two assembly companies in the Kia conglomerate, Asia and Kia, went on strike to demand an increase in the amount of redundancy payments and to stop Samsung from getting control of the company. Samsung, with Hyundai, is the biggest chaebol and is notorious for its anti-union activities. If Samsung takes over Kia, say the workers, union militants will be victimised.
Oh explained that, in the hope of saving their jobs, individual Kia workers also borrowed money to buy shares in Kia. He said that the workers had succeeded in stopping Samsung from buying Kia out and that the protests minimised job losses. However, "the government is trying to use the crisis to bust unions, by blaming them for the problems".
In a related development, the president of the KCTU, Kwon Young-kil, is a presidential candidate in the December national elections. Oh pointed out that it was "a mass delegates' meeting which decided that Kwon should run".
Workplace-based election groups have been formed to campaign and raise money. The groups are called "People's Victory 21st Century".
"This has never happened before", said Oh. The elections are being used to launch a "political movement of workers' power. Through the elections we want to set up a labour party next year." The party aims to represent workers and all "progressive and democratic people".
Asked about the involvement of socialists in the formation of the party, Oh pointed out that it is illegal to be a socialist in South Korea. "The party is just a progressive party. If Kwon Young-kil said he was a socialist he would be immediately imprisoned."
The general strikes in January not only forced the government to retreat from many of its industrial relations attacks, Oh said, but also resulted in some steps forward in the organisation of the working class. The KCTU membership has increased, the organisation on the ground is much stronger and many Koreans now realise that unions are necessary, he said.