First shipyard workers’ labor union set up at Samsung Heavy Industries

A labor union comprised of shipyard workers at Samsung Heavy Industries held a launch ceremony on July 13, signaling the start of its full-scale activities.

“We declare that we are dignified laborers who are members of a labor union,” a Samsung Heavy Industries labor union official said at the union’s launch press conference at Geoje City Hall Briefing Room in South Gyeongsang Province. “We will ensure that all workers enjoy exercising their rights to engage in labor union activities.”

It is the first time that Samsung Heavy Industries’ shipyard workers have organized a labor union in nearly 50 years since the company was founded in 1974. While the company already has a union for white-collar workers, there was no labor union for shipyard workers. Instead, a workers council was formed, but it is not legally recognized as a labor union so has not been guaranteed all three official labor rights — right to organize, right to collective bargaining, and right to collective action. In the shipbuilding industry, the employees of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hanwha Ocean (formerly known as Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering) are members of the Korea Metal Workers Union. The Samsung Heavy Industries labor union aims to join the Korea Metal Workers’ Union in the second half of this year after expanding the number of its members and its organization.

“For half a century, many workers at Samsung Heavy Industries have been treated unfairly under labor union-free management and have not been able to say anything about it,” said Kim Dae-young, secretary general of the Samsung Heavy Industries labor union. “We plan to take care of workers’ rights by focusing on workers’ health rights and other injustices that the workers council has not been able to take care of.”

Source: BusinessKorea