[Editorial] When Business Threatens to Strike

Lee Soo Young of the Korea Employers Federation (KEF), an organization that represents large-scale employers and big business, said something at a press conference the other day that causes so much concern its frightening. "If the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU, Minju Nochong) goes on strike, businessmen are going to go on strike as well," he said, adding that Korean companies "will march off to places like China in greater numbers."

His thinking is too dangerous and anachronistic to be written off as just a strong statement meant to pressure the government and organized labor. One hears it like an open threat to put the country's economy on the line for the sake of corporate gain.

Lee claimed that high-wages that are making life hard for Korean companies and encouraging them to relocate overseas. He made no effort to hide the fact that big business really more interested in cheap labor than a flexible labor market. For all practical purposes he confessed to being stuck in dated thinking from the 70's, back when companies depended on cheap labor. It is pathetic and frustrating that such an important business representative's business philosophy is so stuck in time.

The crisis in the manufacturing industry is not just an issue for business. It is something the Korea Tripartite Commission needs to work together on to find new answers. Japanese companies are moving back to Japan from overseas, claiming that productivity and added value offset the burden of wages. Korean companies, in turn, should ask themselves how hard they have worked towards technology development and increasing productivity. The one-minded pursuit of cheap labor that is common in Korean business is, over the long term, bad for companies and bad for the whole economy.

Big business representatives are making more frequent comments of sociopolitical importance. You cannot attack someone for actively defending his interests. However, a mutually prosperous labor-business relationship will remain a distant possibility as long as they insist on not acknowledging their partners in dialogue. KEF needs to remember the slogan "work for the establishment of an advanced labor-business relationship."

The Hankyoreh, 11 February 2006.

[Translations by Seoul Selection]