Dear Pen-Lers, Please give a look to the following call for support for Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction's laborers' struggles against unjust lay-offs. Kim Jin-suk, one of the leaders of the struggle, staging a solitary protest for over 190-days on the top of a 35m high crane, said that she would not go down alive before the company withdraw the lay-offs. Your support is crucial to the struggle as well as to her life. I will really appreciate it if you could send a few lines of solidarity message for the struggle. You may send them to me or to the office of National Association of Professors for Democratic Society, [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> . Sincerely yours, Seongjin Seongjin Jeong Director of Institute for Social Sciences Editor of MARXISM 21 Gyeongsang National University Jinju 660-701, South Korea Call for your support for Hanjin Heavy Industries' laborers To Whom It May Concern The Korean society is now buzzing with the disputes over Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction's layoff. To analyze and help address the controversy, the National Association of Professors for Democratic Society, the National Professors' Union, and the Korea Progressive Academy Council held seminars, which reached the conclusion that the company's argument that the layoff was inevitable due to cancellation of ship building orders for Yongdo Shipyard has no ground. After constructing a shipyard in Subic, the Philippines, Hanjin implemented the cold-blooded layoff, saying that there are no shipbuilding orders to be proceeded in Yongdo Shipyard in Korea. However, the company recorded a whopping 201.4 billion won in operating profits in 2010 alone. Its accumulated sales profit ratio was double than those of its competitors, such as Samsung Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding, and STX, but Hanjin's laborers are still suffering from low wages, which is just 60-70% of those paid by other shipbuilders, and miserable working conditions. In December 2010, it notified its workers of the layoff, but on the very next day, it announced dividend payment of 17 billion won. Although Hanjin argued that no order was received for Yongdo Shipyard, it won orders for a container ship and a warship on June 27, 2011, just one day after the company reached an agreement with its government-controlled labor union. In 2007, the management of the company made a guarantee with the labor union: The company would enable the laborers at Yongdo Shipyard to work until retirement age by winning enough shipbuilding orders to be performed for the coming three years at the business site. In February 2010, in return for the labor union's agreement to stop their strikes, the management agreed to stop its layoff. Turning a blind eye to all these, however, the management is now forcing its workers to leave the company. >From late 2009 to 2010, 409 workers were forced out of the company and >in early 2011, another 400 persons suffered the same fate. Against the unfair layoffs, Kim Jin-suk, the company's female labor leader has protested by staying alone on top of a crane for as long as 190 days. Laid-off workers have also protested heavily to their full exhaustion. To protest Hanjin's unfair layoff and support the tearful resistance by Kim and other laborers, Korea's civic groups, labor unions, scholars and artists voluntarily took 190 buses, nicknamed 'Bus of Hope' to visit the nation's second largest city of Busan and staged their own protest. The management of Hanjin didn't show sincere attitude for negotiations. Instead, they filed a lawsuit against those who came onboard the buses, while continuing to suppress laborers' rights for survival and livelihood. Fifteen people, who had been either laid-off by Ssangyong Motors similarly or family members of such workers, took their own lives in just several months after the car maker had implemented the layoffs. Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction's former worker Kim Ju-ik already killed himself by strangling himself on Crane No. 85. Kim Jin-suk, who climbed onto a crane after his death, has also announced that she is fully prepared to follow the suit. Three professors' organizations in Korea are protesting shoulder to shoulder with Kim Jin-suk and her laid-off former colleagues against Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction to help normalizing Yongdo Shipyard's operation and prevent any more loss of lives. This is not just an action to pressure the shipbuilder's management to stop their barbaric violence and give hopes to Kim and other workers who risk their lives for survival. It is to fight for justice for those who unfairly suffer and to make an alliance with them. It is to find our true self, instead of staying in silence in the face of suffering laborers' pains. Professor Chomsky expressed his support upon hearing the news. We also ask your support. Your expression of support can help revive the workers who are protesting their way to death. Thank you. July 14, 2011 National Association of Professors for Democratic Society* National Professors' Union* Korea Progressive Academy Council
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