Korea's Park, unionists fight make-or-break battle “We can never accept the police’s violent intrusion. We will systematically react against the government’s suppression of labor,” said Shin Seung-chul, head of the KCTU.

Korea's Park, unionists fight make-or-break battle “We can never accept the police’s violent intrusion. We will systematically react against the government’s suppression of labor,” said Shin Seung-chul, head of the KCTU.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2013/12/116_148509.html

President Park Geun-hye hugs a soldier during her visit to a front-line unit in Gangwon Province, Tuesday. Park told the troops to deal sternly and mercilessly with any North Korean provocations. / Yonhap

Rail privatization comparable to US healthcare reform

By Jun Ji-hye

Neither President Park Geun-hye nor unionists have room to retreat in the rail workers’ strike that entered its third week, Monday.

From Park’s perspective, any retreat could mean a decline in her political capital, something similar to what happened to her predecessor Lee Myung-bak following months of candlelit vigils triggered by his decision to open up to the import of U.S. beef.

The unions are in an equally dire situation. A prolonged slump has taken the wind out of the sails of the union movement.

Rail workers are the backbone of that movement so, if their strike fails, it could serve as a serious blow to the overall power of unions.

That’s why the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), the progressive umbrella group, vowed to try and bring down the Park government after hundreds of police raided its office in downtown Seoul Sunday to ferret out leaders of the rail strike.

President Park said that she would not yield to the union’s pressure, calling the strike “illegal.”

In terms of her political agenda, Park can’t leave the heavily-indebted Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL) alone in order to press ahead with the streamlining of state-run firms that are under mountains of debt.

But the situation appears more complicated for Park.

The more docile Federation of Korea Trade Unions (FKTU), a rival of the KCTU, has thrown its support behind the rail workers, withdrawing itself from a tripartite meeting also involving management and the government that serves as a channel of dialogue.

Rail workers have been striking for 16 days as of Tuesday against the company’s decision to set up an affiliate which will run a new bullet train service separately. They believe it is a step toward privatizing the state-run rail operator.

Plus, the opposition parties as well as civic groups are forming an alliance with the unions to put additional pressure on the government.

“We can never accept the police’s violent intrusion. We will systematically react against the government’s suppression of labor,” said Shin Seung-chul, head of the KCTU.

Various civic groups including the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice and YMCA are joining hands with unions by holding a relay press conference slamming the Park government.

KORAIL has so far suspended about 8,000 workers from their jobs for joining the strike. Its CEO Choi Yeon-hye also disclosed a plan to hire 500 replacements.

A key test for both sides will come next week or so when the mass migration takes place for the New Year’s holiday. Public opinion in the end will determine which side will win.

If history serves as any guide, the odds are long for Park.

Her predecessors, including progressive heads of state — Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun— tried to bring a greater sense of competition to the railroad operations, but without success.

They launched an ambitious path toward rail privatization but yielded due to systematic resistance, making it something akin to healthcare reform in the United States. It remains to be seen whether Park can pull off what President Barack Obama did with Obamacare.

This time, the government said that it is not trying to privatize the railroad in response to the rail workers’ claim that a newly-created subsidiary for high-speed KTX trains is a privatization ploy.

jjh@koreatimes.co.kr,