EDITORIAL from the Korea Times on Jan. 9)

Grand social compromise
Are employers, big unions ready to share pain?

In February 1998, labor, management and government reached a landmark accord on
mutual concessions to ride out Asian financial crisis.

The need for such a "grand
compromise" is more keenly felt now that the economic situation, and job market
in particular, are considered even worse than 11 years ago. So the proposal made
for that purpose Tuesday by the head of the tripartite Economic and Social
Development Commission seemed both appropriate and timely.
Actually, the atmosphere is quite ripe among workers to share the pain of the
economic crisis, as shown by a recent survey in which 81 percent of respondents
agreed on the need to share jobs. Labor is already accepting wage freezes and
cuts as somewhat inevitable; in December, labor and management agreed to keep
wages at present or even lower levels at 310 companies, compared with 85 such
firms in November.
More promising is the enhancing solidarity between regular and temporary workers,
as more unions are moving to admit part-timers and migrant workers as members in
the so-called one-company-one-union campaigns. It is regrettable in this regard
the larger the companies, the less willing workers are to form a single union
with their less privileged colleagues, reaffirming the fact these labor
aristocrats pose an even bigger problem than some employers in enhancing the
nation's unionism. The labor union of Hyundai Motor, which hires 19,000 non-staff
workers, for instance, has turned down the motion to form a single union three
times. This must have something to do with regular workers' wages are more than
double those of temporary employees doing exactly the same work.
A bigger problem is, of course, the government. The Ministry of Labor has
recently decided to reduce the minimum wage for aged workers and allow managers
to prolong the employment of temporary workers before making them full-time
workers ??? without much consultation with unions or even the three-party
commission. Many unionists regard ??? with reason ??? the
labor-management-government commission as little more than a dummy.
It is also an open secret that the Lee Myung-bak administration has tried to
weaken the authority of the three-way panel ever since its transition days.
Nothing showed this better than the government's appointment of the commission's
current chairman, who was rather skeptical of the function of the body he was
supposed to head, maintaining it should serve as an advisory agency rather than
decision maker.
Former President Kim Dae-jung could work out the first social compromise by
calling for his very support base ??? workers ??? to sacrifice themselves for the
national economy. If President Lee wants to repeat the same feat, he should also
persuade his core supporters ??? the business community and other sectors of the
Establishment.
Bureaucrats cite Ireland, which reached grand social compromise about 20 years
ago and has renewed it every three years. They should know, however, that the
Irish achievement was based on long experiences of self-reliant negotiations on a
national level in addition to the government's policy based on ``vision and
trust."
Without similar groundwork, any unilateral call will only ring hollow and invite
sneers from workers, who say it is the political community that most urgently
needs a grand compromise.
(END)