Statement by Kwang-Jun Yu, Director of Policy for the Daewoo Motor Workers Union at the Charleston Five Rally In South Carolina
June 9, 2001
I stand here today bringing you the solidarity of the Daewoo Motor Workers- in solidarity with your struggle against racism, against union busting, and against police violence.
The Daewoo workers in Korea are in a struggle against GM. We know about the vicious racism of the rulers of South Carolina and the corporations here- they want to keep people divided so they can continue to pay lower wages and give fewer rights. Racism against Black people is horrible and wrong. The descendants of slaves should be honored not be the victims of more injustice. We too have been the victims of racism. GM treats all workers badly- but they reserve the worst treatment and the worst wages for those in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Average pay for Korean workers now is $4.33 an hour. Many make much less. GM wants to come in and exploit us at that rate while threatening workers here in the United States with cutbacks and layoffs- and We're Saying No to that.
We know that there is a struggle here against union busting and police violence. We are in a struggle against union busting and police violence in southern Korea. Ever since the IMF and the US bankers came in- they have been demanding privatization, layoffs and a move to lower wages. They push privatization so US companies can take over and layoff workers and have one person doing two and three jobs. I think you may know about that- since they do it here too.
But it is worse in Korea. In Korea, the IMF and the US companies have demanded that laws that the labor movement fought for and won- be dismantled. We have a law limiting the right to lay off- now they have demanded that this law be dropped. They want us to work up to 56 hours straight with no overtime. They want to make it illegal for the community to support strikes; they want to expand the ability of a company to use scabs. Their real agenda is to push us back to a period when all unions were illegal. Did you know that our labor confederation (KCTU)- like the AFL-CIO was illegal until only a couple of years ago?.
Thousands of Daewoo workers have come out to protest against a GM takeover. Thousands have been laid off already in preparation for GM and more will lose their jobs. We are fighting for our lives- literally. In southern Korea there is almost no unemployment benefits. One half of everyone who has a job now is a "temporary" worker with no rights.
When we come out to protest, we have been faced with brutality- just like that inflicted on the Charleston 5. Thousands of police have massed against us. Hundreds of us have been beaten and sent to the hospital. Some have had their ability to see taken from them by the police clubs and beatings. They use bull dozers to smash through to get at us. We know about police brutality. That is why we feel such solidarity with the Charleston 5
The brutality that you face here and the brutality that we face in southern Korea comes from the same place. It is the hammer that they use to keep us in our place- to drive us back from having our basic human rights. It is a hammer wielded by GM and by the IMF and by all of the Big Business interests that we are facing. The Daewoo workers have raised one of our hands to stop the blows of his GM hammer. We extend our other hand in solidarity to you- and we hope you will reach out for us. Stop the GM Takeover of Daewoo!
Thank you.
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