A 77-day sit-in by workers battling redundancy, which shut down a South Korean auto plant and sparked violent clashes with police, appeared to be ending yesterday.
Ssangyong Motor said unionists were leaving the paint shop where they had holed up although some hardline members were still inside. Yonhap news agency said workers and management had reached a deal to end the occupation.
Almost 100 people have been injured this week at the plant in Pyeongtaek, 70km south of Seoul. Strikers have battled riot police with giant catapults, firebombs and steel pipes while police fought back with tear gas.
PHOTO: AFP
In dramatic scenes on Wednesday, police commandos rappelled from helicopters onto the roof of the paint shop, the last building still held by the strikers.
Other officers inside three containers lifted by giant cranes landed on a nearby roof on Wednesday while two helicopters dropped liquefied tear gas on protesters. Ssangyong spokesman Cha Ki-ung could not confirm the deal but said there would be an announcement soon about talks which began earlier yesterday.
Cha said unionists were leaving the paint shop.
“Some hardline members are still inside. Other members gave up and are waiting in a building attached to the paint shop for ID checks by police,” the spokesman said.
Yonhap said 30 members who rejected the deal are still inside. It said police plan to arrest 21 alleged ringleaders.
The Chinese-invested Ssangyong, the country’s smallest automaker, received court protection from bankruptcy in exchange for a turnaround plan which called for 36 percent of its workforce, or 2,646 employees, to be sacked.
Some 1,670 accepted voluntary retirement but the rest went on strike and occupied several buildings, eventually halting production.
More than half gave up after managers cut off power and water and thousands of riot police tightened their siege.
An estimated 500 were still holed up in the paint shop earlier Thursday, with police fearful of storming the building because it is packed with inflammable materials.
Union leader Han Sang-kyun and court-appointed manager Park Young-tae began meeting earlier in the day in a container outside the paint shop.
“I understand that both sides reached a deal to save 48 percent of the fired workers,” Yonhap quoted a source as saying.
The union had proposed a plan to save 48 percent of the workers by giving them unpaid long-term leave of absence, the source said. Ssangyong had previously offered to save 40 percent.
The standoff has clouded prospects for the carmaker’s survival, costing nearly 316 billion won (US$258.3 million) in lost production.
China’s Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp has a 51 percent stake in Ssangyong, but lost management control when it received bankruptcy protection.
The firm specializes in sport utility vehicles and luxury sedans.
Surveys show South Korea’s reputation for union militancy has been a factor discouraging foreign investment. But despite the scary scenes at Ssangyong, analysts say employees are generally becoming more pragmatic.
Several unions have recently quit the militant umbrella group the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which was involved in the Ssangyong dispute.
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