Riots over Daewoo layoffs continue

Workers for Daewoo Motor Company in Pupyong, South Korea continue to protest mass lay-offs, Mar. 7, 2001.

Pupyong, South Korea, Mar. 7-- Hundreds of South Korean activists armed with steel bars and firebombs battled with riot police on Wednesday to protest against mass lay-offs by the ailing Daewoo motor company.

Union officials said about 100 former Daewoo Motor workers and their families had been taken into custody by police after they lay down in the street to block buses of employees heading for the factory.

Fighting broke out shortly after Daewoo re-opened its main plant in Pupyong, 30km (18 miles) west of Seoul, which had been shut down for 20 days.

The violence followed the announcement that nearly 1,800 workers would be laid off as part of restructuring plans aimed at making the company attractive to a foreign buyer, possibly General Motors Corp.

Reports said several hundred workers and activists, many wearing masks, clashed with about 1,000 riot police. Some hurled firebombs and stones.

A crowd of round 1,500 protesters at a rally outside the plant chanted: “Down with the government of President Kim Dae-Jung which is forcing workers out of jobs.”

A police helicopter hovered overhead, broadcasting warnings to the protesters to disperse or face arrest.

Daewoo Motor, South Korea’s third-largest carmaker, shut down the Pupyong plant on February 16, citing a growing inventory of unsold cars.

However, its union said the closure was an attempt to stop protests by laid-off workers.

Dan Byoung-ho, head of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), called for a halt to the lay-offs and vowed the protests would continue.

He said workers would hold nationwide rallies this month, targeting not just Daewoo Motor, but also the government for pushing ahead with restructuring measures.

Daewoo Motor filed for bankruptcy in November with estimated debts of at least $10 billion. It has since been kept afloat with emergency bank loans.

The company promised to shed about a third of its 16,000 workforce in return for the loans.

Prosecutors have meanwhile launched an inquiry into secret funds allegedly embezzled by Daewoo Group founder Kim Woo-Choong.

A South Korean court allowed prosecutors on Tuesday to enlist help from Interpol to track down Mr Kim, 62, who is in hiding abroad.

Source: BBC News

UFCW challenge business leaders on need for ergonomic standard

The following is a statement by Doug Dority, international president, United Food And Commercial Workers Union.

Washington, Mar. 6— The United Food and Commercial Workers Union is the largest organization of food processing workers in the United States.

To feed America’s families, thousands of food processing workers are needlessly crippled and maimed each year. Meat-packing and poultry processing have some of the highest incidences of repetitive motion injuries in the country.

It is easy to understand.

Take a knife and make a forceful cutting motion. Do the exact same motion again...and again...and again...and again. Make that exact same motion 10,000 times...20,000 times...40,000 to 50,000 times a day. Do it for five or six days a week...50 weeks a year.

You will find out what happens to your hand, your wrist, your elbow, your shoulder. You won’t be able to pick up your child. You won’t be able to play ball with your kids. You won’t be able to do a hundred simple things that most of us take for granted.

I challenge any Senator or Member of Congress who is thinking of voting against America’s workers and voting against the ergonomic standard — to take a food processor’s knife and make just a few thousand cuts — and to see for themselves why the ergonomic standard is essential to protect working families from injury, pain and job loss.

I challenge the leadership of the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers to take a food processor’s knife and make just a few thousand cuts — and, then say there is no need for an ergonomic standard.

I doubt if we will have any takers on this challenge. The case against the ergonomic standard is based on ignorance...not information.

The case against the ergonomic standard is based on political muscle...not the human muscle that produces the food products that feed America.

We know that ergonomics works. We have redesigned work stations in meat-packing plants...and we cut the injuries, we cut the worker compensation costs, and we cut the human misery that comes with workplace illnesses and injuries.

We know that OSHA enforcement action — or the potential of OSHA enforcement action — motivates employers to work together with workers and their unions to put effective ergonomics programs in place.

The UFCW has some of the most effective ergo programs in the country — at IBP in Dakota City, Nebraska and at various Excel plants.

These plants are models for the meat-packing industry and any other industry. We know that without OSHA, employers are much less likely to deal effectively with repetitive motion injuries.

The ergonomic standard is the catalyst for action...action that will prevent the thousands of crippling injuries that are destroying life, work and family for workers in the food processing industry.

The 1.4 million member UFCW represents workers in retail food, meat-packing, food processing, health care and chemicals. The UFCW is one of the largest single organizations of workers directly impacted by an ergonomic standard. The UFCW initiated the effort for an ergonomic standard during the George Bush Administration. Bush’s Secretary of Labor, Elizabeth Dole, began work on the ergonomic standard following a meeting with the UFCW President. The current standard is a direct result of the work of the UFCW more than a decade ago.