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2002-10-28 14:09:37, 조회 : 384 |
"Korean overseas investment and the working conditions of woman workers in Korean-invested companies, particularly in Vietnam"
Maria Chol Soon Rhie, Chairperson
Korean Women Workers Associations United (KWWAU)
August 28, 1998
INTRODUCTION
"There are two groups which raise big problems with workers in the world" said Neil Kearney, the chairman of lnternationaI Textile and Leather Labor Union in Brussels. "The two groups are Korean and Taiwan companies. They are recognized as 'being cruel' by workers" he added.
Beginning in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Korean investors moved much of their capital from domestic labor-intensive manufacturing sites in the garment and shoe industry to overseas production zones. The rising value of the Korean won and the increasing wage rate for domestic workers led many Korean companies to seek out cheaper and more exploitable workforces in less industrially developed regions. Korean companies began investing in factories in Southeast Asia, China, Mexico and Latin America. By paying lower wages, exerting more severe labor repression, and hiring a predominantly young and female workforce, Korean companies engaged in abusive labor practices characteristic of their own early patterns of industrial development, as well as those of other newly industrializing countries such as Taiwan and Hong Kong.
However, cheap, docile and exploitable workforces simply do not exist for foreign investors to choose amongst. They must be actively created, maintained and perpetuated through a host of structural conditions and directly repressive labor control practices. The creation of Export-Processing Zones (EPZs) by local governments in newly industrializing countries offered foreign companies fringe benefits and incentives. Workers, mainly young women from rural areas, toiled in extremely harsh and inhumane working conditions for very little wages. These conditions not only allowed foreign companies to extract more profits, but they also served as repressive means of labor control. Employers continued their repressive tactics to make workers less expensive to hire, easier to fire and less able to organise independently.
In this paper, I would like to examine Korean overseas investment and the working conditions of woman workers in Korean-invested companies, particularly in Vietnam. By focusing on the experiences of women workers employed in mainly Korean-owned factories in Vietnam, particularly in light of the current regional economic crisis in Asia, we can better understand continuing and changing conditions for women workers in newly industrializing regions.
SITUATI0N OF KOREAN INVESTMENT ABROAD
Investment per industry (unit: number, million US$)
Regional inveshent by Korean companies (unit: number/ million US $)
Numbers of labor disputes in overseas investing Korea companies
WORKING CONDITIONS OF WOMEN WORKERS
VIETNAM
Recent Industrial Development
During the mid 1980s the Vietnamese government joined many of its neighbors and began pursuing a rigorous market liberalization developmentalist program focused on attracting foreign investment. In December 1987, the government issued the Law on Foriegn Investment to encourage rapid development through foreign capital across a range of sectors, particularly labor-intensive industries. In 1991, the Vietnamese government created its first Export Processing Zones, mainly through joint venture capital projects with transnational capital from South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and China. In 1997, the Vietnamese government attempted to increase the attractiveness of their EPZs by offering foreign companies 2-4 year tax holidays and reduced taxation rates for companies that export 80 percent of their products.
The main foreign investors in Vietnam are South Korean and Taiwanese companies. They operate subcontracting plants mainly in the garment, electronics and footwear industry. Vietnam represents one of the latest stops in the migration pattern of garment and footwear producers. For example, production for NIKE began in Japan, moved to Taiwan and Korea and then moved again to Indonesia, China and Vietnam. More than 35,000 workers in Vietnam produce products for NIKE alone, the largest workforce for a single manufacturer. NIKE shipments constitute 5 percent of Vietnam's total exports.
Low Wages and Long Working Hours
The conditions for women workers in Vietnam before the current economic crisis were characteristic of the experiences of women workers in other low-wage, exploitative and hazardous EPZs. Workers are forced to work extremely long hours and compulsory overtime, often without compensation, for lower-than-subsistence level wages.
Sam Young Vietnam. Ltd. opened a factory in the village of CuChi on the northern outskirts oh Ho Chi Minh city that produced products for NIKE among other footwear manufacturers. On average Sam Young workers worked 80-100 hours of overtime every month. Many workers are so exhausted by the workload that they fall unconscious while working, according to some reports. One worker explained, "We come back home after night shifts sleep walking." (Asian Labour Update. v. 30. 10/97-1/98) Le, a 19 year old woman worker for Sam Young, received $48/month working 6 days a week. When asked if she was happy working for Sam Young, she explained, "How can I be happy? My salary is very low. I can barely affort my living expenses." (South China Morning Post 24.3.98)
Poor Working Conditions and Health and Safety Hazards
Workers toil in unsafe working conditions and often are not given the proper protective equipment. The leaked Ernst and Young audit for NIKE revealed that the majority of NIKE's subcontractors violated Vietnamese labor and environental laws. Workers were continously forced to work over the maximum number of legal work hours. Over 77 percent of employees had been exposed to respiratory disease, the dust exposure exceeded ten times the acceptable level, and the tuluene content exceeded 177 times the standard level. Although NIKE was aware of the severely hazardous working conditions, they continued to ignore the problem for ten months after the audit report was released.
Because many women workers migrate from their homes in the rural countryside to EPZs, they are dependent on their employers for their daily living needs. At PT Victory Long Age, the company food served is far below the nutritional standard. Workers reported becoming ill, yet employers refused to pay workers medical bills.
Abusive Treatment by Supervisors and Military-style Management Practices
In addition to rigorous working conditions and extremely low wages, workers also are subjected to maltreatment by supervisors. Soon after the Sam Young factory opened in 1996, 1000 workers walked off the job because South Korean manager hit a woman worker in the face with a rubber NIKE sole as punishment for a minor police violation. At PT Victory Long Age, workers are fined if they visit the toilet more than twice in one day.
Many South Korean and Taiwanese employers are also infamous for their military-style management practices. Some employers subject women workers to rigorous daily physical regimes such as stand-up and sit-down drills during their long 10-12 hour workdays. At another South Korean-owned factory, women workers were forced to kneel on the hard floor and hold their hands above their heads for 20 minutes for poor work performance. Fainting is a daily occurrence at many factories, including the Sam Young factory. At Dong Nai, 12 women fainted and were hospitalized because their Taiwanese supervisor forced them and 44 of their co-workers to run around the factory twice (2 km) in the extreme heat because they wore the wrong shoes to work. At another Taiwanese-owned factory, 100 women workers were forced to stand in the scorching sun after spilling their lunch trays.
Absence of Code Enforcement Mechanisms
Although the Law on Trade Union officially requires companies to abide by minimum wage and safety regulations, the lack of enforcement mechanisms allows companies to operate despite their many violations. In addition, large manufacturers who have their own Codes of Conduct often do not abide by them, despite repeated public statements that declare otherwise. NIKE's abuses and hypocrisy are the most publicized examples. NIKE repeatedly claims that it is a "good employer." They attempted to prove their worthy identity by hiring an indendent agency to conduct an audit of NIKE's subcontractors in Vietnam. As mentioned earlier, NIKE consciously neglected findings on the occupational health and safety violations of their Vietnamese subcontracting plants. Their neglect is clear evidence of the failure of company codes of conduct to protect workers from excessive abusive and exploitation and their role more as public relations tools than tools to protect workers.
Collective Organizing Efforts
Since 1990 the number of strikes at factories has risen from 21 to 52 in 1996. More than 600 workers at the Reeyoung Co. Ltd, a South Korean-Vietnamese joint venture, staged a wildcat strike to protest against long working hours, poor pay, compulsory overtime works and malteatment by their Korean bosses. Workers at the Choong Nam textile went on strike to demand for one-month bonus a year, a higher meal aIIowance, two pairs of safety clothes overalIs, and a transport subsidy.(The Straits Times 30. l2. 93) More than l20 workers at a South Korean joint venture silk mill walked off the job to protest against cuts in their wages, pay overtime (The Nation. 14. 9. l994)
Worsening Conditions in Current Economic Crisis
Although the scale and scope of the economic crisis in Vietnam is not as great as that in South Korea, Thailand or Indonesia, workers in Vietnam have also been experiencing mass lay-offs, intensified working conditions and more abusive labor practices. In the last two months of 1997, more than 4,000 workers were dismissed. In the first three months of 1998, another 5,000 workers were dismissed. In the last quarter of 1997, 2,000 workers from the Korean-owned garment company, Juan Viet Co. alone were dismissed. The remaining 2,000 workers were denied their wages during that period. Women workers in the garment and footwear industries are the most affected population.
Because foreign investors threaten to withdraw production if cheaper quota prices are not offered, local subcontractors transfer the burden mostly to workers. Small and medium enterprises are most vulnerable in this economic crisis. Samsung, one of the largest investors in Vietnam, reduced production by 70 percent, but did not reduce its core overseas workforce. This means that the majority of workers cut worked in subcontracting plants that produced for Samsung. Samsung ability to pass the burden of the economic crisis onto workers stems from a legal structure that protects foreign investors at the expense of its own workers. Since parent companies are able to transfer their debts to their overseas operations and overseas subcontractors are not responsible for their own internal debts, the parent company is able to declare massive losses, thereby, neglecting to pay local suppiers and workers' back wages and bonuses. Workers are stuck with no ability to be able to collect their due wages or bonuses.
Workers are subject to severe-labor squeezing practices, even when capital costs decrease. Increased lay-offs, the rising rate of temporary workers, the degradation of working conditions, the deterioration of job security, the increase in informal sector work and the attempt to dissolve unions are examples of the current intensification of labor abuses during this crisis-ridden period. Companies try to reduce profit losses by cutting wages, requiring compulsory, unpaid overtime and laying off workers. Taiwanese- and Hong Kong-owned companies are even trying to disburse workers' unpaid wages as "bonuses." One worker expressed, "We don't need a bonus. What we really need is the wages for the days we've worked. It's unacceptable that workers receive nothing for months of work." (Asian Labour Update, v. 27, 2/98-5/98) or
It's difficult for workers to identify a particular person to blame because of the structure of the transnational subcontracting industry. When a subcontracting company is totally owned by a foreign investor (100 percent), the managing director simply executes policies generated overseas. A Journalist from Lao Dong explained, "the real 'boss' is far away overseas." (Asian Labour Update, v. 27, 2/98-5/98)
When workers are able to make headroads into organising, they often pay for their efforts, either because the plant shuts-down operations and moves to another subcontractor who is able to guarantee lower wages and more strict labor repression or because they are immediately terminated. At Sam Young 1800 workers striked to protest degrading working conditions and lay-offs, one week later 700 of those workers were dismissed, most likely as an attempt to dismantle to union.
The Strength of the Discourse
Workers operate under conditions plagued with fear and repression. The mere threat of termination or factory shut-down operates as a strong labor control mechanism. It gives employers more freedom to exploit workers for employers justify their abusive practices as necessary and legitimate management practices in this current economic crisis. For example, Mr. Chang Hung Kuang, the owner of Palace Co., felt that it was "unfair" that he needed to pay workers more when there was overtime work and at all when there was no work. He tried to retain a totally expendable and contingent workforce by witholding wages from workers. Workers at Palace Co., protested at the Tan Thusan EPZ for two-days until Mr. Kuang agreed to pay workers at least 70 percent of their wages when there was no work.
A local subcontracting plant manager told a reporter from Nguoi Lao Dong, "We do not have enough time to complete our planned production. If workers do not work overtime, we will breach our contracts with our clients and the whole company will be hungry then." (Asian Labour Update, v. 30., 10/97-1/98) Thus, regardless of the conditions or circumstances, workers are forced to bear the physical and psychological burden of increasingly insecure and uncertain market conditions.
At Samma Corperation, management tried to dismiss workers in order to hire temporary workers later. In November of 1997, they laid off 296 regular workers and on 1/17/98 they tried to fire 34 more regular workers. Publicly, the company tried to mask their abusive activity by declaring that the termination of their contract with NIK forced them to shut-down the shoe upper department. However, Samma workers insisted that the company was trying to execute unfair labor practices by appealing to the insecure economic situation.
Possibilities for Change
Thus far, efforts to remedying worker abuses remain limited. Although labor groups still insisting on more permanent and substantive efforts at reform, the management at Sam Young have responded to some of the recommendations by Vietnam Labor Watch. After the incident with the abusive manager, Sam Young hired a new manager. They held union elections and extended a labour contract to workers. They built more bathrooms, improved the workers' canteen area and added more rest areas. They also hired an onsite doctor and agreed to conduct regular health checks. Workers were given a 5 percent raise (which amounted to $0.08 more per day), increased training wages and forced to work lesss overtime.
INDONESIA
Workers in Indonesia have been experiencing similar exploitative and abusive working conditions. Neal Kearney, the General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation, explained, "factories are as much like prison camps as you can find."
Indonesia is a country with the fifth largest pogulation in the world according to l990 census. More than =.l4 % of the total population are women. Women workers have been utilized as cheap labour. They are paid lower wages for the same job than man. They are also docile compared to man. The 'inherent' skiIIs of nimble fingers, tediousness and patience of women workers tend to be empIoycd for them to be easily controIled. They are engaged in such manufacture indushies as textiles, garments, cigarettes, cosmetics, electronics, food and beverages, and some of light metal industy. The number of women workers in these industries estimates to account for 60% of the female workforce.
Women workers' situation
Low wages
0versupply of female work force in the labor market causes entrepreneurs to repress wage levels in order to increase their own investments in addition to the government's policies which attempt to maintain and create profit for the management. There are companies that pay workers with wages under the Minimum Wages Regulation, even though the regulation account for only about 30% - 40% of basic costs of living.
A survey done in 1991 by a business consulting firrn in Hong Kong, CROSBY RESEARCH LTD., about workers' wages in some countries reported as folIows:
Long working hours
For example in RaJabrana (garment factory) women workers have to work 12 -14 hours a day. This factory has above 6,000 workers and the great majority (80%) are women. If they do not work overtime, they are fired.
The target system worsens the situation.
Competition promoted by companies has weakened solidarity among workers. The target system prevents women workers from recognizing the whole process of production and working situations in the factory.
Sexual harrassment
Sexual harrassment by male co-workers or their male supervisors fretluently take place.
Women workers are afraid to make complaints because they can be dismissed, due to severely insecure employment.
No marriage policy
Although it is illega1, some factories force women workers to retire once they marry or become pregnant. At PT Kintama, if women workers get pregnant, they are fired. Some women workers tight their stomach so that employers do not recognize they are pregnant. Most of the companies do not provide menstruation leaves nor maternity leaves.
Discrimination in the work place
Women workers face discrimination in terms of promotion, payment, aIIowances(pension) etc. The differences of employment status between daily workers, pieceworkers, and contract workers often separates workers. so it is one of the difficulties to organize them.
Cruel dismissaI
The management does not pay any attention to the health and safety of workers.
CENTRAL AMERICA
Workers at Daewoo EIectronics' Hyo Seung maquiladora in Mexico, have filed actions with the Public Ministry and the Labor Board against sexual and physical abuses and multiple violations of the labor law by the company president and the directors. Since the plant opened, managers of the company had been sexually abused women workers for 6 months: touching workers, offering money for sex, and threatening workers if they do not agree. Forcibly locking workers into a 'punishment room' without ventilation where they are exposed to toxic solvents that can potentially cause birth defects and cancer is a barbaric violation of fundamental human rights.
Women workers at Orion Apparel maquiladora in Choloma, Honduras receive such low wages that they confront malnutrition. They average 85 hour overtime workweeks. If they refuse that, they are fired. Managers do not pay to any attention to the heath and safety of workers. Even if a woman worker is pregnant, she does not receive any pregnant leave. On 15 Jun, l995 an armed guard shot and kiIIed a worker who was going to a demonstration, (National Labour Committee)
CONCLUSION
The experiences of women workers in Vietnam in Korean-owned companies reveals many shared experiences between women workers in other countries, from South Korea to China to the U.S.. The intensification of work hours, the deterioration of job security, the increase in causual and temporary forms of employment, the degradation of working conditions, and the dismantling of labor unions, all in the name of increasing competitiveness in a volatile global economy all means that the daily lives and struggles of workers are becoming more severe as multinational companies and the neo-liberal project spread. Workers are forced to bear the burden of increased global economic risk, and women workers, in particular, suffer a disproportionate share. They are the first to be dismissed and the first to be subjected to more harsh and insecure forms of employment.
The experiences of women workers in Vietnam highlight that multinational capital with any face, whether it bears a U.S. face, a Korean face or a Taiwanese face, is capable of the same exploitative and inhumane labor practices. This points to the need for women workers to identify common sources of labor abuse and become more aware of abusive actions of capital vis-a-vis labor. Women workers must empower themselves, raise their consciousness about global capitalist exploitation, and struggle to work towards promoting and strengthening their rights. Women in various industrializing regions should exchange their experiences as a way to support each other, better understand their situations and come up with action strategies to counter continued employer abuses. Finally, women workers should forge solidarity links with other women workers.
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