Almost every year, early summer in Korea has been a season of strikes and rallies by labor unions. So far, it seems like a different one this year.
Demonstration against the import of American beef that is feared by the public as likely to cause Mad Cow disesase and incessant coverage by newspapers and broadcasting over the issue moved the presence of labor unions against so-called “business-friendly” labor policies of the government out of public attention.
While the upper-level unions, especially the Korean confederation of Trade Unions, are still sticking to confrontational approaches to labor relations, the individual labor unions of companies look moving to more realistic direction.
The moves illustrating such change of direction include wage concession, strike-free declaration, and letting employers to decide on wage increase or even accepting wage freeze.
Along with a statistical trend of decreasing strikes and working days lost, these actions of labor unions may be a sign of the future when Korean labor relations will be as mature as those of advanced countries.
Yesterday’s article from Dong-A ilbo covers details of these changes.
