In December 1996 and January 1997, South Korea experienced the largest organized strike in its history, when workers in the automotive and shipbuilding industries refused to work in protest against a law which was to make firing employees easier for employers and curtail labor organizing rights.
Among other things, the Korean government intended to postpone the legal recognition of the recently established Korean Confederation of Trade Unions until the year 2000. The officially recognized Federation of Korean Trade Unions then called upon its 1.2 million members to go on strike on December 26. This was its first call for a general strike since the union's founding in 1962.
After a single day, the strikes started spreading to other sectors including hospitals. On December 28, South Korean riot police used methods such as tear gas against the strikers in order to dispel crowds. Strikers responded by throwing bricks.
In late January 1997, the strike ended after the labor laws were amended by the government.
Overview
In December 1996 and January 1997, there was a massive four-week nationwide strike in South Korea in protest against newly passed labor laws which gave employers more power to lay off employees, made it easier to hire temporary/strike replacing workers and put off allowing multiple unions to be formed at a given enterprise. This resulted in the mobilization of three million workers, which shut down auto/ship production, disrupted hospitals, subways and television. The two main unions involved were The Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) working with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (FCTU). This strike was notable due to its consistently high levels of worker participation and high level of public support. Two months after the end of the strike, the government passed very similar laws with only small concessions, making the strikes enormously successful in mobilization but only marginally successful in terms of actual results.
Background
From 1985 to 1996 South Korea experienced a series of strikes that resulted in a clash of old laws and governmental frameworks that were incompatible with modern working practices. South Korea was able to endure these strikes and the lost revenue associated with them because of the "Three Lows": low interest rates, the lower value of the dollar against the yen and low oil prices. After these lows dissipated South Korea felt that it could no longer afford continued labor unrest. Many companies attempted to institute practices that would allow for cost cutting such as reliance on contract workers and part-time workers, in addition to allowing for voluntary retirement and adopting a no work no pay policy. These moves were actively opposed by labor groups and the need for labor reform became clear. This belief also led to South Korea's New Korea Party (NKP) creating the Labor-Management Relations Reform Committee (LMRRC) on May 9. This consisted of members of various labor interest groups, university professors and lawmakers. Its 30 members held several public hearings on the creation on new labor policies and created the New Labor Law. This new Labor law would make it easier and legal for companies to lay off workers, increase the legal work-week by 12 hours and allowing companies to modify working hours, make the use of scab labor during strikes legal and outlawing strike-pay.
The South Korean government said changes were necessary to make South Korea "more competitive with other developing economies" that were emerging as competitors to Korea. The committees that had been created were unsuccessful in creating a new labor bill after six months of hearings, so the NKP decided to create a new secret committee to create the bill on December 3. Then on December 26 in the wee hours of the morning four busses filled with NKP members arrived at the capital and in the course of twenty minutes eleven bills were passed. This action not only angered those outside the governmental walls but also the LMRRC and those in other political parties who felt cheated. None of the other parties were aware of this vote and the outrage that resulted from these dishonest political maneuvers were major contributors to the strikes and labor disturbances that followed hours later.
