Continuing clashes between trade unionists and police in Seoul over the weekend and the prospect of a major strike throughout South Korea tomorrow are sure indicators that the protests provoked by the precipitate introduction of new labour legislation by President Kim Young sam three weeks ago are by no means over. A bill making it easier to lay off workers, replace strikers and introduce more flexible working hours was passed early in the morning in the absence of the opposition.
The whole episode has exposed deep seated problems facing the country as it comes to terms with its new status among the front rank of industrialised states, haying joined the Organisation for Economics Co operation and Development last month. It now faces a period of painful adjustment in which many of the elements on which its success was based during the period of industrialisation over the last three decades need to be re evaluated if it is to retain its competitive edge. The labour legislation which protected full time workers from dismissals is but one of these. Others include the strong interventionist and regulatory role of the state, protectionism from foreign investment, the need to modernise free association rights for workers and to make more provision for social welfare if trade unions are to agree to more flexible working conditions.
South Koreans development has been such an exemplary case study that it is easy to overlook these special conditions which facilitated it, but which are now regarded by its government as brakes on further progress. Economic development, concentrating on such heavy industrial sectors as shipbuilding, cars, steel, petrochemicals and electronics, and characterised by phenomenal growth and export success, was achieved under the tutelage of successive military dictatorships.
Harsh working conditions were mitigated by a surprisingly strong, if elitist, trade union movement in these sectors, bolstered by a selective permission to organise granted by the government. Strong real wage rises compensated for extensive social welfare provision. The huge industrial conglomerates, the chaebol, became an indispensable part of this economic structure.
Political change and democratisation in the last 10 years have opened up South Korean society and put paid to military dictatorship. But, as can be seen from these events, the habits of authoritarian rule have not been discarded. The hamfisted introduction of the new labour legislation has rebounded on President Young Sam. It has exposed to national and international attention the failure to introduce accompanying legislation ion freedom of trade union association. This is perfectly symbolised by the fact that the protest movement is led by an illegal organisation, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, whose leaders the president is threatening to arrest. The protests are set to attract more public support as a result, as tomorrow's strikes will bring together both the legal and tamer trade union federation and its more militant rivals.