Crane-Top Strike Rattles Seoul

Even by South Korean standards, where labor activists go to great lengths to press their causes, an eight-month protest at the top of a 35-meter crane is a little extreme.

The one-woman protest by Kim Jin-suk at Hanjin Heavy, a shipbuilder in Busan, has become a cause célèbre for unionists. Around 8,000 have shown up for two rallies at the shipyard, ferried in by so-called “Buses for Hope” in support of the 52-year-old Ms. Kim and sacked Hanjin employees. A third rally is planned for this weekend.

Ms. Kim was fired from the company in 1987 and is now the leader of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions’ Busan district.

The impact has been felt in the capital, with politicians sparring over who’s to blame and how to reach a resolution.

Kim Moo-sung, former floor leader of the ruling Grand National Party on Wednesday lambasted Ms. Kim as well as left-wing politicians.

“We should definitely drag Kim Jin-suk down (from the crane) as she has nothing to do with Hanjin, blocks company operations from being normalized and stages an illegal strike,” he said, adding that “Buses for Hope” only created “despair” for local residents.

Sohn Hak-kyu, opposition Democratic Party leader, has visited the site and lays the blame at the door of the government, saying its chaebol-friendly policies have created a situation where “businesses ruthlessly fire workers, without taking any responsibility.”

The dispute started in December, when Hanjin workers walked out in protest against the planned layoff of 400 workers, and the company, in turn, closed the shipyard. Then on Jan. 6 Ms. Kim started her crane-top protest.

The union and management finally reached an agreement in late June over severance terms, but a handful of workers and Ms. Kim objected and are demanding all the fired workers be reinstated.

Meanwhile, a leadership vacuum at Hanjin has allowed the problem to fester. Hanjin Chairman Cho Nam-ho left the country in mid-June and has yet to return. He was supposed to appear in a parliamentary hearing in late June.

The company’s 1,400 workers recently placed a half-page ad in major newspapers pleading with “outside forces” to stop politicizing the issue and help them normalize operations quickly.