Date:  Wed, 7 Mar 2001 23:12:48 -0500

Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 15, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper

260 AUTO WORJKERS ARRESTED: GM FORCES CRISIS IN SOUTH KOREA

Daewoo Unionists Call for International Solidarity

By Gloria La Riva
Inchon, south Korea

When 400 fired Daewoo autoworkers and about 30 of their family members gathered outside the gates of the Pupyong plant here on March 7, they were met by a wall of 3,000 riot police. Hundreds of cops were stationed at every entrance to the giant industrial complex, every street corner, every subway stop.

The company had announced that the plant, after having been closed for a month by a strike and sit-in, would be reopened on this day. The plant had earlier been occupied by thousands of strikers, who carried out a long sit-in in sub-freezing weather hoping to keep the company from eliminating their jobs.

But the police had already stormed the plant and forced out 1,700 strikers in preparation for its reopening. Now 400 of the fired holdouts were back, confronting almost 10 times as many cops. Before the day was over, 260 of them had been arrested and the plant was back in operation.

The Daewoo struggle has great significance for the labor movement in the United States. These workers, who have put their bodies on the line, have been forced into this fight because General Motors is bidding to take over the Korean auto company. It is demanding that first the current owners cut costs by trimming the work force. Already Daewoo has laid off 7,000 out of the 18,000 workers formerly in its employ.

If GM's strategy succeeds, it will only whet the auto giant's appetite for concessions from all its workers, including here in the United States.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has been organizing solidarity rallies at Daewoo, bringing in workers from other industries to show support.

The strike leader is Kim Il-Sup, 37, and his picture appears on wanted posters all over this town. He and a handful of other strike leaders are living in tents in the parking lot of a church near the plant. The cops can't touch them as long as they stay on church property.

A delegation from the International Action Center in the United States met with the strike leaders on the day that the plant reopened. Kim Il-Sup told them what had happened, and said that morale was still high. He explained that even if the workers had not been fired, their futures would be dim because of the GM takeover.

The union had offered concessions to the company, like cutting hours so that workers would not have to be laid off, but the company had rejected their offer.

"The workers inside and outside should unite to fight capital," said Kim, referring to the 3,000 workers who had returned to their jobs. "Otherwise, those inside may be put in the same fate as us. We should fight together."

Daewoo has three main plants in south Korea. The workers believe that General Motors has a plan to buy only two of them, and close down Pupyong.

Brian Becker of the IAC told Kim that this was not an isolated strike. "It revolves around the issue of restructuring demanded by the International Monetary Fund. The south Korean government is trying to make this a model case in order to attract foreign capital.

"Daewoo has become a test case for all south Korean unions. If you are defeated, all labor will be in a defensive position. This heroic sitdown strike has won the support of working people everywhere who are fighting against globalization. If we do not resist and fight, we cannot win. So even if it's a difficult struggle, it's the only path open to the working class."

Becker said that his organization would call for support for the embattled Daewoo workers from unions in the U.S.

[Editor's note: GM's board of directors met in Detroit the day before the 260 workers were arrested in Inchon. They refused to say whether the auto giant would continue in its efforts to buy Daewoo, thereby increasing pressure on the Korean company to resolve the struggle with the workers. The next day, as the 260 workers were being arrested, South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung was in Washington meeting with President George W. Bush. On March 9 he is scheduled to meet with GM Chair Jack Smith in Chicago.]

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