First Strike in Shipbuilding Industry
Workers of Samsung Heavy Industries will go on a strike in the afternoon of July 7. The strike will mark the first time that a labor union stages strike in the shipbuilding industry under restructuring.
According to the shipbuilding industry, the Labor Council of Samsung Heavy Industries will go on a time-limited full strike from 1 pm to 5 pm on July 7. For the four hours, operations will be put on hold at Samsung Heavy Industries. Although the labor council announced that if the management nixes its restructuring plan, they will not go on a strike, it is highly unlikely that the plan will be called off.
Last month, Samsung Heavy Industries submitted to creditor banks its restructuring plan to secure 1.5 trillion won by slashing employees and selling off assets last month. Its self-rescue plan calls for cutting its workforce up to 40% by 2018 including letting 1,900 employees leave the company via voluntary retirement this year. The labor council demands the company nix the plan.
The moves of the labor unions of Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine are catching a lot of attention as workers of Samsung Heavy Industries announced its plan to stage a strike.
The Hyundai Heavy Industries Labor Union applied for labor dispute arbitration in the National Labor Relations Commission for labor disputes such as a strike. Last week, arbitration suspension was sent to the labor union last week. This means that the labor union secured the legal right to a strike.
The DSME Labor Union applied for arbitration to the Gyeongnam Province Labor Committee with an aim to oppose the restructuring. But the committee said that their arbitration application was not subject of its arbitration unlike that of Hyundai Heavy Industries, disabling the DSME Labor Union from seizing the right to a strike. The DSME Labor Union is, however, planning to apply once again for arbitration by changing the salary and collective bargaining as the purpose of their labor dispute with the management sooner or later.