Union Deal Brings Elusive Labor Peace to Ssangyong

Six years after the most violent strike in Korean automotive-industry history, most of the unionized Ssangyong workers fired for leading a 2-month sit-in at the main assembly plant in Pyongtaek are getting their jobs back.

In a Dec. 11 meeting Ssangyong President Choi Johng-sik, Kim Deuk-jung, who heads the Ssangyong branch of the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions and the automaker’s own independent union leader, Hong Bong-seok, signed an agreement restoring the fired workers’ jobs.

A Ssangyong spokesman confirms to WardsAuto the company also is forgiving the workers for damages caused to the plant during the strike, although an appeals court in September upheld an award of 3.3 million won ($2.8 million) the company had won in its lawsuit with a lower court. Under that ruling, the 187 fired workers each would each pay a proportionate share of the damages, 17,647 won ($15,000).

Among the former employees is the former president of the Ssangyong union, Han Sang-gyun, who led the illegal strike in 2009 and spent three years in prison afterward. He currently serves as president of the Korea Federation of Trade Unions umbrella group.

During the 2-month sit-in at the Pyongtaek plant the unionists fired nuts and bolts at management personnel who tried to enter the plant, using huge slingshots specially built for the purpose. They also set fire to parts of the plant and to heaps of tires in outdoor compounds.

Dozens of workers, managers and police were injured and hospitalized during the clashes when management tried to take charge of the plant.

The strike ended when national police special-force units rappelled onto the plant roof from helicopters to grapple with and capture the ringleaders.

“For sure this is a positive thing for the company,” the spokesman says of the newly signed agreement. “The lingering matter has been a potential weakness for the company and now we are able to get rid of that old problem and move forward in cooperation.”

Negotiations among the three parties began in January. It was quickly approved by KCTU union members but still faces final approval by the board of directors of Ssangyong, the smallest of Korea’s five automakers and majority-owned by Indian manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra.

Workers on Board With New Products

After the February sales launch of Ssangyong’s Tivoli compact SUV, CEO Choi called on workers for cooperation so the automaker could continue working with high productivity and put past troubles behind them.

The workers complied. The KCTU union branch agreed to a contract in July that awarded them a monthly pay raise of 50,000 won ($42), a 1.5 million won ($1,260) productivity-increase bonus and a 1 million won ($842) bonus for the successful launch of the Tivoli and other new models. Those amounts are far below that being asked by unions representing rivals Hyundai and Kia, and the contract signed by the union representing GM Korea.

It is ironic that the man held responsible for the 2009 strike, Han Sang-gyun, now heads the KCTU umbrella union to which the workers belong. It is more ironic that when the deal was signed last week he was in police custody for having led a 1-day general strike by hundreds of thousands in Seoul in mid-November in which several police officers were injured.

When police came looking for Han he took sanctuary in a Buddhist temple in Seoul and stayed for three weeks. The Buddhist priests demanded he leave and even tried to forcibly evict him. He surrendered to a team of police who had surrounded the temple grounds Dec. 10, one day before the tripartite agreement was signed.

The Ssangyong spokesman says he does not know what role Han might have played in the nearly yearlong negotiations. He does confirm the union leader was not present at the meeting where the three parties signed the agreement Dec. 11.

The spokesman declines comment on whether Han would get back his job with Ssangyong after his stint as head of the KCTU ends.