S. Korean Strike Widens, Threatens to Cripple Nation

SEOUL — South Korean workers launched the largest organized labor strike in their history today, threatening to hamper transportation, manufacturing and financial services in the worst political crisis of President Kim Young Sam’s administration.

It is the first joint national strike by South Korea’s two major trade federations, and the action’s leaders estimated that about 610,000 workers had walked off the job as the country’s raging labor strife entered its third week. The labor leaders said that 1,800 companies were affected.

Protests have intensified beyond expectations since Dec. 26, when the ruling New Korea Party rammed controversial revisions to two labor and national security laws through the National Assembly in a secret predawn session.

But it remained unclear how many workers will join the two-day national work stoppage as Kim moved back from the brink of confrontation in the face of widening anti-government protests by religious, academic, civic and international organizations.

On Monday, Kim instructed his Cabinet to draft supplemental legislation to protect workers’ rights and job security, while ruling party Chairman Lee Hong Koo sought to meet with union leaders being harbored by Myongdong Cathedral in downtown Seoul and pledged to resolve the crisis through “dialogue” in a visit of conciliation.

The 1.2-million-member Federation of Korean Trade Unions, for instance, had announced that 700,000 workers would begin striking before dawn today in the pro-government union’s first general strike in its 51-year history.

At the Kwanghwamoon subway station in Seoul, Lim In Sung reported to his ticket booth job as usual and said his union’s 3,300 members had decided to defy federation strike orders. “Right now, the government seems to be taking soft measures,” Lim said. “This is the time to watch, not go into an all-out confrontation.”

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Kim, however, is still refusing to repeal the labor law revisions--which maintain limits on labor activities and make it easier for firms to order mass layoffs, hire temporary contract workers and avoid paying overtime in a more flexible work system.

Kim reiterated that the revisions are needed to boost South Korea’s sagging international competitiveness as the once-fierce economic tiger loses its roar amid slackening exports, a mounting trade deficit and declining growth.

Scattered strikes carried out in the last three weeks by an estimated 200,000 workers in 176 firms have cost an estimated $2.3 billion--primarily in the auto, machinery and shipbuilding industries, the government reported. Among 70 leading firms surveyed, six have suspended operations, including Hyundai Motor Corp.

“The stark reality facing us today is that without the labor reforms, workers will get neither income nor new jobs in the face of cutthroat global economic competition,” Kim told party members at a presidential dinner Monday.

Few Koreans, however, seem sympathetic to Kim. A poll by the Hangyoreh newspaper indicated that 75% of salaried workers surveyed support the two-day general strike, and 34% had switched their support from the ruling party to the opposition to protest Kim’s tactics. The declining support is causing consternation in the ruling party, which is gearing for the presidential election later this year.

Park Jung Hee, a 28-year-old nonunion employee of a Seoul accounting firm, has never much supported the labor movement. But this time, she said, she does--to protest what she said were Kim’s undemocratic tactics in passing the law and his stripping of protection from workers.

“Citizens must bear the inconvenience of a general strike for a greater cause,” Park said as she attended an open-air evening Mass at Myongdong Cathedral on Monday amid the clothes boutiques and fast-food restaurants of Seoul’s trendy shopping area.

Before an illuminated white-stone statue of the Madonna, hundreds of worshipers mixed Roman Catholic hymns with protest songs for justice as church clergy sermonized for a repeal of revisions to both laws. The clergy also vowed to protect the labor leaders being harbored by the church from arrest by Kim’s riot police.

The government has issued arrest warrants for 20 labor leaders on charges of interfering with business and other allegedly illegal labor activities. But in another sign of the government’s increasingly cautious approach, Kim declined to storm the cathedral over the weekend--which he did last year to arrest several telecommunications labor leaders.

During his cathedral visit Monday, ruling party Chairman Lee was shoved aside by workers screaming “Get out! Get out!” after alighting from his official limousine. Instead, he met with Cardinal Stephen Kim to seek his assistance in resolving the dispute.

Lee pledged to bring the issue to the National Assembly and resolve the crisis through “dialogue” rather than force.

More than 2,500 military specialists are on standby to take over essential services such as trains and telephones. As the government increased signs of compromise, however, union leaders reported wavering sentiment to strike and issued conflicting reports over how many of the nation’s 1.6 million union members will actually join the walkout.

Some reports predicted that 1 million workers in South Korea’s two major labor federations will strike, but others reported that sentiment to strike was waning.

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Chang Do Young, 31, however, was planning to be out on the picket lines today. He said that although his wages have increased fourfold in his past nine years as a painter with Kia Motors, the pressure to produce has also increased: He must complete paint jobs in half the time he used to, in 2 minutes ad 10 seconds compared with 4 minutes and 30 seconds. And while the firm has introduced better equipment to reduce factory dust and debris, an adequate ventilation system is still lacking, he said.

“It’s a total lie that worker demands are the reason Korea’s economy is slowing down,” Chang said, as his union colleagues waved colorful banners and practiced chants calling for Kim’s demise. “Workers have been sacrificed while business has neglected to invest in new technology.”

the two laws’ revisions.

Chi Jung Nam of The Times’ Seoul Bureau contributed to this report.