Building Ships, Building a Nation: Korea's Democratic Unionism Under Park Chung Hee

6. Rationalization and Resistance

3 A section of Labor-Management Council minutes in which the principle of hahu sangbak is being discussed, August 1960. By permission of Hanjin Heavy Industries Union 4 Union officials speaking to workers during the 1968 strike. Pak Insang collection 5 Worker demonstration during the 1968 strike. The small placard reads “Prevent Espionage ” (pangch’ŏp), a slogan the union consciously adopted to forestall red-baiting. Pak Insang collection 6 Union meeting, 1968. Pak Insang collection 7 Union officials during mold-loft shop sit-in, 1968. Top right figure is Chi Suwŏn; sitting next to him is vice president Pak Chŏngbu. His face partially shown, No Tuhong appears at bottom right. To his right, hand touching hat, is Kim Oksaeng. Pak Insang collection 8 Demonstrating family members during the 1968 strike. The handwritten message on the placard on the left says, “[We] refuse [to accept] the firing [of workers]. Company president, show up here and solve [the problem] fast!” Pak Insang collection 10 Workers’ gathering in front of cranes during the 1969 strike at KSEC. The placards read “Secure fair price for [our labor power]” and “Raise the wages.” Pak Insang collection 9 Union president Hŏ Chaeŏp, bullhorn in hand, addressing workers during the 1969 strike. Pak Insang collection 11 Workers on strike, 1969. Pak Insang collection 12 Family members gather to watch police deployment in front of the shipyard, 1969. Pak Insang collection 13 Union officials lined up between police and family members to prevent a clash during the 1969 strike. Pak Insang collection 14 Company notice firing sixteen union officials and members, September 1969. Pak Insang collection RATIONALIZATION AND RESISTANCE T H E D E V E L O P M E N T O F A P R O G R E S S I V E U N I O N L I K E T H E K S E C W A S P O S sible in the 1960s not only because the Park Chung Hee regime’s labor policy up to 1968 was, contrary to the conventional view, relatively tolerant of labor activism. It was also greatly facilitated by the fact that, unlike in privately owned export industries such as textiles, the labor control regime at nonexport sector state-managed enterprises was rather loose. KSEC workers successfully utilized this valuable space for labor activism until the end of the decade in pursuit not only of living wages and job security, but also of equality and dignity. This chapter looks at this period from a different angle, focusing on the particular business situation of the KSEC and the company’s efforts at rationalization of production and personnel management at the yard. Workers and the union, while accepting the rationale for implementing cost-cutting and productivity -enhancing measures, steadfastly resisted aspects of management’s schemes that they perceived as unfair. The union also made a critical decision in this period to open the union membership to a contingent workforce, which had long been used as a device to keep the labor cost down. The chapter examines how the process of resistance to new and old measures aimed at rationalization of the business operation was shaped by values shared among workers—including equality, fairness, and solidarity—and how resistance to rationalization in turn influenced the nature of the unionism that emerged among the KSEC workers. 6 117 THE KSEC IN THE 1960S Extensive government efforts in the late 1950s to diagnose and fix financial and operational problems at the KSEC yard, discussed in chapter 3, proved ineffective in revitalizing the yard. The new military government’s diagnosis in 1961 repeated the same set of problems as the causes behind the KSEC’s financial woes: lack of capital, insufficient managerial efforts to secure work orders, shortages of electricity, difficulty in procuring materials, outdated facilities and equipment , and clumsy management. To solve these problems, a detailed rehabilitation plan was suggested.1 A new and reorganized KSEC was established on June 4, 1962, with capital of one billion won as a state-managed enterprise (kugyŏng kiŏp).2 The problem of insufficient operating funds was thus solved by a government committed to developing a viable shipbuilding industry. Throughout the 1960s the state supported and subsidized the KSEC yard and...