[vol.12] Voices from the Field_ Wooseok Electronics Democratic Labor on flighted over a ghost labor union

Wooseok Electronics Democratic Labor Union
flighted over a ghost labor union

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▶July 10th, the Wooseok Electronics Labor Union members had a demonstration in front of the Incheon Northern Labor Office demanding a truth of the fabricated official documents. People wouldn't believe me what i say. Only a day break in a month, and even though society shouts about the company run by 12 working hours shifting system, nobody would care and just go to bed for the coming tomorrow's work. Among those busy people, few care about it. Like a stream flowing under a thick ice, people grasp the water stream. (The union president Mr. Park's reminds)

Unlike other Sundays, July 6th, Wooseok Electronics (union president: Park Ji young, the number of workers: 100, product: transistor, located at Kajoadong, Seoku, Incheon) workers awoke from a long silence. The union meeting was finally held on the day of one-day break in each month.

After the meeting was successfully ended, the supervisors asked the workers to keep quiet of the happening until the next day, and stayed together at a motel.

Around 10:00 in the morning, on July 7th, the workers didn't work on that day, registered the form at Inaction Northern Labor Office and gathered together around lunch time to hold a rally. When the workers registered the formation of the union, the numbers reached 80 only for the day time workers. However, after the meeting with the company president, the rest of workers decided to listen to the union until the next day, 8th.

In the evening, while having dinner with workers, they got a call from the labor supervisor Incheon Soo-chang in the Labor Office saying "I didn't realize it in the morning, later on but I found that Wooseok Labor Union has been already existed officially on the date of July 4th".

This was the opening of the announcement that tell us about the ghost labor union. We didn't know what to do. The representatives of the union immediately called an emergency meeting and called up the Northern Labor Office. The Labor Supervisor said, "the exact supervisor who got the registration isn't here and we can't contact him through handphone or a pager, so why don't we discuss this matter tomorrow, not today?"

But we went there and looked through the papers and found some unclear points.

First, , the registration paper was on the date of July 4th, and there was a non-existing worker's name Lee Joo-bok on it.

Second, with the lack of exact number of required materials, it was registered. Third, when the workers went there to register their democratic union on July 7th, the office didn't mention about the expiating union.

Observing these points, the workers visited to the office again with the chairman of Inaction branch, Federation of Democratic Labor Union and a few other persons, we found that the non-existing member, Lee Joon-bok had been erased out, and the registration date had been changed from July 4th to July 7th, Also a few more things had been changed.

Consequently, the Labor Ministry and company fixed thing up to make things worse for the union.

We prepared for a struggle to discover the truth of the case done by the Northern Labor Office and pushed them to confess their fabrication on the ghost labor union. It was not a just small thing to be erased at a moment.

We sent materials to the press centers to explore the truth of the ghost labor union case. All the workers know it is not a mistake of one officer, but co-operation by the capitalists and government who oppress workers to keep the, so called, industrial or financial peace in a society.

The struggle to achieve legal status of the democratic union hasn't finished, yet. Still a long way to go. It's just a first step to the better society!