There is shocking testimony that Samsung Electronics has been giving employees who have joined the union large amounts of money to leave the union, and sometimes even coerced them into quitting.
It is of course an open secret within big business that the Samsung group's approach negative towards unions by definition. Still, it has strongly denied the charges every time allegations of union suppression surface in the media. Now, however, Democratic Labor Party (DLP) member of the National Assembly Dan Byeong Ho has made public someone's "certificate of receipt" for more than W100 million from Samsung on the condition that the person leave the union. He made the document public at a press conference, and so now Samsung's anti-union tactics are undeniably an issue.
The testimony from the laborer in his forties who was coerced with money into leaving the union is shocking. A member of the company's personnel department yelled at him demanding he admit union membership and that he list the names of other members, and that they were persistent about getting him to leave the union. If true, it means that Samsung has been engaging in wrongful management activity at every level and has been seriously violating civil rights. That is why this is not something that should be passed over as a single, isolated one-time incident. Not wanting to lose his job, the man agreed to leave the union. But once he had renounced his membership, they forced him out of his job, for reason that "someone who has joined the union with a mindset that is inconsistent with Samsung's management philosophy cannot work at Samsung."
Samsung says that it went through the normal procedures of having those who wanted to quit do so as it moved one of its electronics divisions from Suwon to Gwangju. That explanation, however, is not enough to explain how it paid W100 million more than given in regular cases of "honorary retirement." If the testimony is false, it is a serious defamation of the "globally respected" Samsung Electronics. If true, however, it is truly disappointing and lamentable, because it means that in a democratic republic you have a world leader in advanced technology using primitive anti-union tactics from the development dictatorship years. The Labor Ministry needs to engage in a fact-finding mission and the prosecution must engage in a thorough inquiry into the truth of the matter.
The Hankyoreh, 12 January 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Suppressing Union is Samsung's 'Philosophy'? |
