Terminated FineTek workers continue smokestack sit-down after 300 days

On Sept. 5, members of a joint campaign to support two terminated Starflex (FineTek) workers who have been holding a sit-down on top of a smokestack for 300 days hold a press conference in front of the Starflex building in Seoul.

Colleagues worried about upcoming winter

The workers are in agreement about one thing: they can’t let their colleagues spend a second winter atop that smokestack. As of Sept. 7, two workers will have been camped out on top of a 75m smokestack for 300 days. Workers unjustly terminated by FineTek, many of whom are simultaneously holding sit-ins on the smokestack and in the company headquarters, are urging citizens to become a “member for a day” so that their struggle can end in victory before a second winter comes.

On the morning of Sept. 5, the Joint Campaign for a Victorious Struggle against Starflex (FineTek) held a press conference in front of the Starflex building in Seoul’s Yangcheon District, titled “300-Plus Days of an Aerial Protest: Announcing Members for a Day.”

The participants in the press conference were wearing matching blue T-shirts that depicted a smokestack.

“Two of the five members of the FineTek chapter of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union are fighting in the sky [on the smokestack], while three are fighting on the earth [at the Starflex office]. We’re encouraging those who want to show support and solidarity for these workers’ 300 days of superhuman resistance to share their burden by becoming FineTek union members for a day,” a group spokesperson said.

In 2010, Hankook Synthetics’ second factory was acquired by Starflex, which promised to respect the current collective agreement with the union, but it hasn’t been doing so since it decided to shut down just two years ago. On Nov. 12, Hong Gi-tak, a worker at FineTek (a subsidiary of Starflex) and former leader of the union chapter, and secretary-general Park Jun-ho began their “smokestack sit-in” at a combined heat and power plant in Seoul’s Mok neighborhood, calling for the company to keep its promise regarding the collective agreement and keeping workers on the payroll. And since Sept. 3, chapter leader Cha Gwang-ho has been holding a sit-in of his own in an office on the 15th floor of the Starflex building.

On Sept. 5, Kim Seung-ha, head of the KTX division of the Korean Railway Workers‘ Union, speaks at a press conference in front of the Starflex (FineTek) building in Seoul as part of a joint campaign to support former FineTek workers who have been holding a sit-down on top of a smokestack for 300 days.

Hong and Park have spent 300 days on the smokestack, enduring bitingly cold winds and temperatures that have soared to 50 degrees Celsius, but the company is still dragging its feet on carrying out the collective agreement as promised.

“The murderous heat has passed, and Hong and I are in pretty decent health. But with no end in sight to our sit-in, we’re worried about what will happen when winter returns,” Park said in a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh on Wednesday.

“Until the company takes meaningful steps to implement the collective agreement, we’re never coming down from this smokestack. We hope the public will lend us their strength,” Park said.

For more about the FineTek “union member for a day” campaign, visit the FineTek chapter smokestack aerial protest page on Facebook. Those who become a member for a day can take part in various activities, such as holding one-person protests in front of the Starflex building and the Blue House and protecting the site of the smokestack sit-in. At 6 pm on the evening of Sept. 6, a festival called “We’re Going to Win Together” will be held in the plaza in front of the Starflex building to mark the 300th day of the sit-in.

A poster for campaign, “300-Plus Days of an Aerial Protest: Announcing Members for a Day”

By Hwang Geum-bi, staff reporter

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