In response to the employment crisis amid the restructuring plan in the shipbuilding industry, trade unions and labor organizations representing regular workers and irregular workers at the shipyards agreed to establish the Solidarity Council for Shipbuilding Workers(provisional).

The Shipbuilding Industry Trade Union Solidarity Council and the Countermeasures Council to Stop Mass Layoffs of Subcontracted Workers in the Shipbuilding Industry held a press briefing at the KCTU head-office in downtown Seoul and announced that both organizations agreed to jointly respond to keep the restructuring plan at bay and to secure the employment of subcontracted workers.

The participating trade unions and workers' organizations in the Solidarity Council for Shipbuilding Workers are 8 trade unions of big shipbuilders such as Hyundai Heavy Industries(HHI), Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering(DSME) and Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction, along with labor bodies representing subcontracted workers at the subcontractor companies such as Hyundai Heavy Industries, Jeonnam Southwest region and Geoje Tongyoung Goseong region(preparatory).

No longer the regular workers of the shipbuilders are immune to the impact of job crisis that hit hard the subcontracted workers at the shipyards last year. According to them, from the end of 2014 until the middle of this year, the total number of retrenched workers due to layoffs or closures of subcontractor companies at Hyundai Heavy Industries(HHI) reached 16,793 workers, 4,856 regular workers and 11,847 irregular workers.

Despite such big laborforce cuts, the HHI has also established a plan for the spin-off through business segmentation except the business divisions of shipbuilding and offshore & engineering. As a result, some 4,300 regular workers will be on the verge of ending up with the contingent status of employment.

Around the end of last year, the number of workers at the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering(DSME) was about 49,000, 13,000 regular workers and 36,000 subcontracted workers. Among these workers, 8,500 subcontracted workers has already left the shipyards until recently and the DSME is receiving the applications of 1,000 early retirements from the regular workers and plans to outsource some of business divisions to reduce another 2,000 regular workers.

The layoffs of subcontracted workers were made first and followed is the employment crisis for the regular workers. It is even estimated that by next year in the worst case 50,000 to 60,000 contingent workers will be further laid off. This backdrop made both regular and irregular workers in the shipbuilding industry join hands for the solidarity action.

HHI union president Baek Hyung-rock said that employers increase the forms of employment at the second-tier subcontractor companies while reducing the workers at the first-tier subcontractors with the purpose of reducing the costs and cutting the laborforce easily without regulatory restrictions. He continued to say, "We will stand firm in solidarity to call for the government policy measures to save the shipbuilding industry and to protect the rights of workers' livelihood."

Ha Chang-min, HHI subcontractors union local leader also said that the solidarity action between regular and irregular workers is the first step forward to stop the mass layoffs and restructuring plan, and the struggle plan will be worked out to protect the rights for the livelihood of the workers.

reported by Je Jeong-nam
edited in English by Kim Sung-jin

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