A woman labor activist continues to defy calls for her to end her 211 day protest against unfair labor practices at the Hanjin shipyard in Korea.
The 51-year-old welder sneaked into Crane No. 85 last January 6 to condemn layoffs at a major South Korean shipping company in this southern port city.
Kim's situation put to the fore the state of labor in Korea where the law does not force companies to bargain in good faith.
"In South Korea, even basic worker bargaining rights are not guaranteed," Cho Don-moon, a sociologist at Catholic University of Korea in Seoul, was quoted by the Los Angeles Times.
Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction is aware that the protest is hurting their image, both demestically and internationally.
"She has nothing to do with our company, yet she has caused us a lot of harm," said Jung Cheol-seong, a Hanjin spokesman.
In Subic Bay, workers have organized a union, but Hanjin has repeatedly refused to recognize it even if the Philippine government has already recognized the union as the sole collective bargaining agreement for Hanjin shipyard workers.
South Korean officials here have refused to make public statements on the matter in the hope that news of deaths, injuries and unfair labor practices will go away, like the ship they build for their clients.
Just recently, a solidarity march for the union was held by catholic leaders and some trade union federations. Ironically, another Filipino died before the caravan that began in Metro Manila was able to reach the shipyard.
In Korea, workers have died. Some have taken their lives to fight for workers' rights.
In 2003, after waging a three-month vigil to protest working conditions, Kim Ju-ik, a 40-year-old father of three, hanged himself in the crane's control room. His suicide note proclaimed, "This is a country where a laborer has to risk his life to live like a human."
The same control room that Kim no occupies. (with quotes from the Los Angeles Times)
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