'저는 그들의 땅을 지키기 위하여 싸웠던 인디안들의 이야기를 기억합니다. 백인들이 그들의 신성한 숲에 도로를 만들기 위하여 나무들을 잘랐습니다. 매일밤 인디안들이 나가서 백인들이 만든 그 길을 해체하면 그 다음 날 백인들이 와서 도로를 다시 짓곤 했습니다. 한동안 그 것이 반복되었습니다. 그러던 어느날, 숲에서 가장 큰 나무가 백인들이 일할 동안 그들 머리 위로 떨어져 말과 마차들을 파괴하고 그들 중 몇몇을 죽였습니다. 그러자 백인들은 떠났고 결코 다시 오지 않았습니다….' (브루스 개그논)





For any updates on the struggle against the Jeju naval base, please go to savejejunow.org and facebook no naval base on Jeju. The facebook provides latest updates.
Showing posts with label Samsung. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Samsung. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

[Jeju Resource] Air view of the 2011/2012 Jeju naval base construction plan by the Jeju Naval Base Business Committee

* Image source: Click the links
http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/49kU/297 (2011, 2012)
http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/49kU/296 (2012)
http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/49kU/295 (2011)

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See also
http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2010/11/jeju-resource-translation-why-annulment.html
[Jeju Resource][Translation]: Why the annulment on the cancellation of the absolute preservation area has to be done?

[제주 번역] 왜 절대 보전 지역 해제를 취소해야 하는가?
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Air view of the 2011/2012 Jeju naval base construction plan by the Jeju Naval Base Business Committee




Ignoring the UNESCO-protection designated soft coral habitats (circle area), the Jeju naval base construction is planned to be completed by 2014. The navy's main contract companies are Samsung C & T and Daerim Industry. The sub-contract companies are Woochang, Daeyoung, Osung etc. etc....

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Text Fwd: Cheong Wa Dae-Samsung friction heats up

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/475901.html
Cheong Wa Dae-Samsung friction heats up
Tension has continued over Lee Kun-hee’s critique of Lee administration economic policies

By Hwang Joon-bum
May 2, 2011 

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

[Jeju update] [4/19]People struggling Samsung’s invasion of barricade/ Bishop Kang Woo-Il visited Yang whose hunger strike meets 15th as of April 20

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Image source:

http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/GdUL/8
http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/49kU/186
http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/49kU/190
http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/49kU/192

See also
http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/49kU/188

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The Samsung company who is in charge of harbor and bay construction attempted to removed people’s banners and barricades along the coast twice, mobilizing about 10 civilian-costume policemen on April 19. People resisted hard entering under, in front of the power shovels. Chairman of the villager’s committee against naval base chained himself onto a power shovel. After all the turmoil, the banners and barricades were recovered again by people. It is told that the navy and companies would mobilize the police unit within this week to remove all the people’s barricades. Some arrests are expected then..


http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/area/473847.html










Construction.. construction


Bishop Kang Woo-Il and a National assembly member visited Yang Yoon-Mo in jail. Yang met his 15th day hunger strike as of April 20.


http://www.mediajeju.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=109749

Shin Goo-Beom, an ex-Island governor started his fast in solidarity with Yang in Yang's tent in the Joongduk coast on April 18. He meets his third day fast as of April 20.


http://www.seogwipo.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=68659

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Photo Fwd: The deceased worker finally won over Samsung after 95 days

Samsung General Labor Union site 삼성 일반 노조(클릭)

故 김주현씨 사망 95일 만에 마침내‘삼성자본’을 이겼다.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Text Fwd: A lopsided legal battle for companies named ‘Samseong’




Hankyoreh
A lopsided legal battle for companies named ‘Samseong’
Samsung uses corporate clout to root out long-established companies with the same name
March 29, 2011
By Roh Hyung-suk, Staff Writer 
 

“They obstinately asked me to change the company’s name, citing the law. I was so angry, but it was too much for a small office to fight.”

An exasperated Jang Sun-yong, head of Samaseong Architects, one of the oldest architectural firms in South Korea, so pleaded his case, complaining of the utter difficulties he is experiencing changing his company’s name. In September, at the insistence of the Samsung Group, the office changed its name from Samseong (same Korean characters but different Chinese characters) to Samaseong, but most of the design requests, consultations and other major job communications come in the name of Samseong, which the company has used for around 40 years. Staff members are also unaccustomed to the name, leading to continued confusion.

It was early last year that the company was first asked to change its name. The office received a notice from YOU ME Patent & Law Firm, a firm hired by the Samsung Group to manage its corporate name.

“The Samsung Group patented its trademark and maintains exclusive rights to its use, therefore the Samseong architecture office may not use the same name, even if the Chinese character word roots were different,” the notice stated. “If the office does not change its name, we will be forced to respond with legal action.”

Jang said he was at first perplexed. Former office head, his father, had a close relationship with late Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull: this was because not only did he design Samsung’s Hoam Art Museum, but he also advised on other architectural projects. It is a well-known story in architecture circles that even Samoo Architects and Engineering, which is viewed in the architecture world as a virtual subsidiary of the Samsung Group, chose the name “Samoo” mindful of Samsung.

READ MORE

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Video Fwd: Please don't forget me: Condolence for the 46 dead Samsung workers for occupation disease



URL source: Supporters for the Health And Rights of People in the Semiconductor industry(English: SHARPS)
Video: Please don't forget me: Condolence for the 46 dead Samsung workers for occupation disease
March 13, 2011

출처: 반도체 노동자의 건강과 인권 지킴이(반올림) (클릭)
비디오: 나를 잊지 마세요 (46명의 삼성 직업병 사망노동자 추모 동영상)

2011년 3월 13일

For More info, visit Stop Samsung blog

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Text Fwd: Suggesting a boycott against Samsung here and now 지금 당장 ‘삼성 불매 운동’을 제안합니다!



*Image source: Samsung general Labor Union, March 15, 2011
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* Texts in English and Japanese fwd by Kim Seong-Hean, Chairman of the Samsung General Labor Union on March 18, 2011
* 아래는 삼성 일반 노조(클릭) 김성환 위원장님께서 2011년 3월 18일 보내신 영문, 일어 글들입니다.
________________________________________

Suggesting a boycott against Samsung here and now!”
===== =============
There is an ongoing boycott against Samsung in Korea. It is because Samsung, wielding great power over the whole state as the “invisible hand”, has been covertly suppressing civil freedom. The term “Samsung” has long since become a taboo among the public sphere in Korean society. Even progressive media feel some uneasiness with making critical remarks about Samsung. Major dailies do not even allow an ad for books with critical posture against Samsung. In a situation like this, the following is the article which triggered the boycott against Samsung. I call for your attention and participation.
==========================
The book Thinking about Samsung, written by Kim Yong-Cheol who once worked as a lawyer in Law Department and Financial Department in Samsung, brutely exposes internal corruptions that have been going on in Samsung. That what this book says is not ungrounded or false, is clear from the fact that Samsung or Lee Gun-hee has not yet given any response.

However, we will not be able to get to the heart of the problem, if we only rage against internal corruptions of Samsung. Probably almost every company would more or less have been engaged in irregularities. The real problem is not that Samsung has committed irregularities, but that the very group covertly holds a control over Korean society.

Throughout the harsh period of financial crisis, Korean society has undergone serious changes. Everyone became inclined to think that money rules. Correspondingly, the capital became a dominating power in Korean society. When Roh Mu-hyeon, the former president of Korea, said that the power was yielded to the market from the government, his remark reflected the reality at that time.

Yet his remark was not accurate, although not incorrect. If he had been more honest, he would have said that Samsung, not the market, took over the power. What dominates is the capital, not the market. Precisely speaking, people with the capital rule over us. If everyone had equal power, no one would be able to keep anyone under his/her control. Every power arises from unequally concentrated resources. Likewise, the power of the capital arises from unequal possession of the capital. Samsung's portion increased at a rapid rate, which enabled Samsung to eventually override every other company and become the dominant power.

The wave of so-called “neo-liberalism” re-structured the whole state to be an enterprise, so that even the president refers to himself as the CEO of the (stock company) Korea. Most people find it all fine and good that the government, avowing itself to be a company, offers a job for each of them. But we had better not forget that under a capitalist society like this, the essential raison d'etre of an enterprise is profit, not human being. A job offered by such an enterprise, is not to enhance the quality of human lives, but only to take human as a means to secure its own profit.

Furthermore, an enterprise is the most despotic organization. Have you ever seen an enterprise whose president is elected by employees? What it means for a state to be assimilated to an enterprise is for it to become a despotic state. An enterprise state is a state under the enterprise-dictatorship. Of course, we vote for the CEO of the state every 5 years. Unfortunately, he is just a deputy. There is a “chairman” who really has control.

What has shown us the real power structure, is the fact that Lee Gun-hee, the former chairman of Samsung, got pardoned under a special amnesty, greeting winter Olympic team with president Lee Myung-Bak at the dinner party. Democracy of a state is under a serious threat when there exists an unelected power behind the scene. This is the reason why we cannot but face up to Samsung and the Lee family.

Some might question the point of the boycott: Why pick out only for Samsung? Are other major conglomerates any better? But these questions arise from ignorance about the power structure. It is as absurd as asking why Park Jung-Hee was the sole enemy, notwithstanding the existence of other military authorities or the Repulicans 40 years ago. Only after expelling Park from power could we bring an end to the “Yushin” dictatorship. Only after bringing Jun Doo-Hwan from the power were we able to abolish dictatorship of the military authorities. Correspondingly, we cannot envisage the end of enterprise-dictatorship without expelling Samsung from power. It is because Samsung and Lee Gun-Hee are at the top of the hierarchy of our time. Today, Samsung is not merely a company, but the invisible hand which wields power over the state. If major conglomerates of our time can be likened to the military authorities of at the time of dictatorship, Samsung can be likened to Hanah-circle which was the actual power of the authorities and likewise, ‘the chairman’ can be likened to ‘the president’.

This is why we oppose to Samsung and the Lee family. It is not that Samsung is a major conglomerate, nor that Lee Gun-Hee is the richest capitalist. We are not saying, blindly, that caplitalism or the market economy is the root of all social evils that has to be overthrown. The reason why we criticize Samsung and the Lee family and insist on kicking out the Lee family from Samsung is not merely that Lee Gun-Hee is a capitalist and Samsung is an enterprise. Rather, it is that they are autocratic who oppress our liberty and ruin the justice of the state.

As long as an enterprise, keeping its place, contributes to improving the economy and welfare of the society, we are ready to support such an enterprise. However, when an enterprise exploits its capital only to secure its own profit, bribes public officials to throw state organizations into corruption and threatens the publicity and democracy of the state, such an enterprise and such a capitalist cannot help but be overthrown. All depravity of Samsung is not merely unlawful acts that all enterprises commits under a capitalist society, but something that has its distinctive source in the privileged power of Samsung. It is Samsung's power that make Samsung anti-social in the way that other enterprises are not.

If you want to see how anti-social Samsung is, ask one of the disabled whether Samsung fulfills its obligation of hiring 2% of disabled people. How about this? 3 Years ago, off the coast of Taean, a ship of Samsung corp. crashed against an extra-large oil tanker, which made the west coast of Chungnam province a sea of death. What Samsung did in the first place after this tragic accident was manipulating the ship's log in order to evade its responsibility. Although the local national Maritime police did give an alarm, Samsung pretended as if they had never received one. When millions of people were busy wiping off the oil at the coast of Taean, Samsung kept on pretending not to know anything, being reluctant to issue an apology. When Samsung finally issued one 50 days after the accident, they were at the same time appealing to the court for a lower amount (5 billion won) of compensation.

Even the court was on Samsung's side. On the 24th of January this year, They ruled that Samsung was not responsible for any more than 5.6 billion won(≒4.6 million U. S. dollars), which Samsung had already deposited. This is surely more than the money Samsung had put in Kim Yong-Cheol's borrowed-name bank account secretly, (5.2 billion won) but less than the price of an apartment that Samsung corp. has built. Considering that the operating profit of Samsung was 11 trillion won, 5.6 billion won is as little money as coins in a pocket. Samsung is an enterprise with astronomical amount of slush fund, which is exploited for illicit political funds and bribery of public officials, nonetheless an enterprise without any money to compensate for an accident for which it is responsible.

The kinds of affairs mentioned above make us feel hatred toward Samsung emotionally, but that is not the real problem. Like every other autocratic power, Samsung stands outside the law and order. Samsung both establishes and eliminates laws for its own profit, bribes political official if that is not feasible, or blatantly ignores the law when both possibilities are blocked. When the fraudulent book was handed over to the court, they bribed the court so as to take it back and burn it. An employee of Samsung once snatched away and tore into pieces the record that Fair Trade Commission had secured.

It would be misleading, however, if we supposed Samsung to be a crime organization of some sort. The problem of Samsung is not that it frequently evades the law or that it commits irregularities, but that it takes national organizations as its own means of profit and that it attempts to incapacitate all public functions that the government is supposed to perform.

Protecting the poor and the weak is the essential raison d'etre of the state. Many countries established and has been enlarging the social security system regardless of their difference in ideology. When Korean government tried to broaden the scope of the national pension, Samsung was the first and foremost enterprise to oppose to the plan. It was because Samsung life insurance Co. would no longer be able to sell their insurance if the government did its job. What is it to live in the world that Samsung dreams of? It is the world where the rich is treated like a king in a VIP room in Samsung hospital, even for a trifling flu, while the poor with fatal disease cannot but let the disease to slowly lead him to death. It is the world where the rich swims in his own pool which is filled up with imported spring water, while the poor, being unable to pay the expensive water utility fees, has to use public restroom and live upon rainwater.

In order to prevent this misery, we have to de-structure Samsung as soon as possible. Just like we became able to enjoy civil freedom and democracy after, and only after banishing Park Jung-Hee, Jun Doo-Hwan and military authorities from the power, it would not be possible to bring an end to the enterprise-dictatership without depriving the power of ‘the chairman’ and destructing the organization of Samsung.

Boycotting against Samsung's products is the first step towards the abolition of the dictatorship. That the government is no longer able to control Samsung became obvious, given the trial which was little more than a name and the special amnesty that even made the trial come to nothing. To expect of the state organizations, which has already been bribed by Samsung, to correct Samsung to be a good company, is as unrealistic as to expect of a secretary to scold at his/her chairman's illegal deeds in order to rectify his conduct.

Then, who is it to de-structure Samsung and get it on the right track? No other than customers. The well-known saying that a customer is a king, is not a mere self-congratulation. Although it is admitted that money is transformed into the capital once it starts to propagate itself, the capital can never be accumulated by itself. It is accumulated by exploiting the labor force of workers on the one hand, by emptying customers' wallets on the other. Even without the state can the capital propagate itself. It is also the central reason why the capital is not controlled by the state. But without workers and customers, the capital, not to mention the impossibility of its propagating itself, cannot even come into existence. Therefore, it is workers and customers who are potentially able to take control of the capital. However, there is no labor union in Samsung, because establishing a labor union in Samsung is viciously interfered and oppressed. It is not at all strange that such a power, which has no one to hold it in check, cannot avoid being corrupt.

Now that neither the state nor the a labor union can correct illegal act of Samsung, it is up to customers' direct action. In spite of Samsung's enormous power, it cannot force customers to purchase its products. That, I say, is the Achilles' heel of all capitals. The day when nobody turns out to use the products by Samsung, is the last day of Samsung. Moreover, Samsung produces and provides a vast variety of products and services that makes up for our ordinary life: kitchen utensils, a vacuum cleaner for a bedroom, a telephone and computer for an office, a laptop for a briefcase, a cell phone for a pocket, a credit card for a wallet, etc. If we, without reflection, fill up our lives with products by Samsung, we will become prey for Samsung, just like a fly caught in a spider's web.

However, we have plenty of thing to dispense with, only if we make up our minds to get rid of the products by Samsung. Let's get rid of things of which we are not in need. Let's change what is to be changed. Let's cancel whatever contract or insurance that is not in need. Although it is true that tiny ants have survived ever since there was a life on earth, it took only a moment for massive dinosaurs to become extinct. Nor any tremendous effort is required to make a dinosaur named ‘Samsung’ extinct. Rather, it suffices that we don't do anything. It suffices that we do not purchase products by Samsung. Isn't it easy to do something, compared to doing anything? Only thing that we need to do is to change our minds. Whether to make one's life a dry desert or to make it a green grassland hinges upon his/her mind. Hence, what we need to do right now is to realize what sort of an enterprise Samsung is and to get rid of both our blind attachment to Samsung and groundless fear of Samsung.

Of course it is not easy all the way. Everybody thinks that it is a right of customers to take advantage of a better product and service. On this standard, Samsung is indeed an enterprise to be preferred. Needless to speak of the quality of its products, Samsung provides so perfect a after-sale service that it is possible to get one's refrigerator repaired in two and a half hours even in the evening. But if we ignore what lies behind such a perfect service, namely, a perfectly inhuman labor management, we will not be able to go against fate of becoming a gear of a capitalist society. Not until we take it seriously that the employee who came to fix my refrigerator for me to enjoy a dinner with my family had no choice but to give up a decent dinner with his family, will we be able to find a way out of this inhuman capitalist society.

What is demanded of us at this moment is a new philosophy, new ethics concerning our economy and everyday consumption. Whether the whole process of production and consumption of a product is just, environment-friendly and desirable for all of us, should be the ethical standard of choice for us customers. In this sense, to boycott against Samsung is not only to stand up to external suppression, but also to resist our inner greed and egoism.

Changing our way of thinking in this manner is by no means an ideal. Many customers purchase organic food and fair trade coffee, in spite of their higher price. Of course that is not the end of the problem. What is to be noticed from this example is the good will of human being, which tells us to endure our personal loss and inconvenience. It is through the good will that our history has exhibited gradual progress.

I will leave the question of what to do after de-structuring Samsung until later. It is not just because I believe that the question is to be pondered and deliberated by every one of us, who is responsible for reforming the corrupt and inefficient economic system of Korea. It is because I believe that our first and foremost task for now is to start de-structuring Samsung immediately. Just as ‘bringing down Park Jung-Hee’ was the top priority under Park's rule, banishing Jun Doo-Hwan was the priority agenda under Jun's rule, de-structuring Samsung (and the Lee's) through the boycott is, I believe, the historical task for us to put before everything else at this moment.

In any case, one thing is clear. Not using Samsung laptops and cell phones will not lead to the collapse of the state inasmuch as bringing down Park did not lead to the collapse of the state. So let's say: no more Samsung. Let boycotting against Samsung be the sign of human nobility and Bildung. For a world where human beings win over money!

____________________________


「サムスン」が批判的な公論の場で禁句になって久しい。革新的なメディアでさえサムスンに批判的な記事を載せることに無言の圧迫を感じているのだ。最近「京郷(キョンヒャン)新聞」に韓国 全南チョンナム大学 金相奉キムサンボン教授のコラムが載せられなかったことがその良い例だ。

主要メディアはサムスンに批判的な書籍については広告すら載せようとしない。 金勇澈キムヨンチョル弁護士の著書『サムスンを考える』(原題)(社会評論社)だけに限られた話ではない。サムスン電子の元部長が書いた『ゴルディオスの結び目』(原題)(キム・ビョンユン、ドゥレ経営研究所出版)をはじめ、サムスンに批判的な書籍はどれも同じ運命にあった。金さえ払えば誰でも新聞広告紙面を利用できるという市場原理の基本が、ここでは通用しないのである。

 市場経済を掲げている国でこのような事態が起きている理由は何だろう。明快な答えを出せる者は一人とていないだろう。ただ気後れしているだけなのだ。他社からの広告が入らなくなるかもしれない、訴えられるかもしれないと怯えているのだ。これらの恐怖には根拠がある。サムスンが名実ともに韓国最大の広告主だということだ。小規模の革新的なメディアほど、サムスンの広告への依存が高いというのは、もはや常識だ。また、有罪判決になるべき事件、もしくは被告がサムスンもしくは 李健熙イゴンヒ前会長の事件で無罪判決が下されることも少なくない。こういうサムスンとの法的紛争に巻き込まれることは、誰にとっても避けたいことなのだ。

 似たような事例は、隣国日本にもある。世界的な自動車メーカー・トヨタをめぐる問題だ。日本のマスコミや知識人は過去数十年の間、これでもかとトヨタ式経営をもてはやしてきた。米フォード式経営と比較されるトヨタ式経営は、韓国でも学ぶべきモデルとして知られてきた。しかし私たちが知っているのは、トヨタの真実の半分にすぎない。残り半分は徹底的に隠蔽されてきたのである。

 最大広告主であるトヨタに批判的な報道をすることのできるマスコミが、日本には存在しなかったのだ。『トヨタの闇』(渡邉正裕・林 克明、ビジネス社)が日本主要マスコミから徹底的に無視されたのも、このような背景があったからだ。

 同書の最後で著者は、トヨタをはじめとする大企業に対する日本社会の態度を、太平洋戦争当時に例えている。戦時中、日本軍部は誰の目にも敗北が明らかな戦争に国民を追い込んだが、日本の知識人たちは世界情勢を知りつつも口を開くことはなかった。その結果、多くの日本国民が前進と勝利を唱える軍部のスローガンを鵜呑みにした。日本国民が軍部による集団的な催眠術から目を覚ましたのは、敗戦後のことだった。

 これは、サムスンに対する韓国社会の態度とよく似ている。戦時中、日本国民が勝利報道を前に軍部を批判する勇気を出せなかったように、多くの韓国人は半導体、携帯電話など一部産業での成果だけを見て、サムスンの闇には目をつぶっている。その先にはどんな結末が待っているだろう。

 敗戦が日本軍部だけの敗北でなかったように、「サムスンの闇」が生む悲劇もやはりサムスンだけの問題では終わらないはずだ。韓国社会全体の悲劇になるのだ。

 昨年末、李前会長の恩赦で、十年あまり引きずってきたサムスンの不祥事疑惑が一段落した。それでも我々がサムスンについて考え続ける理由はここにある。「サムスンの闇」はすなわち「韓国の闇」であるからだ。「サムスンの闇」に光を当てる方法は無いのであろうか。

 国民は、途方に暮れている。主要メディアは沈黙し、司法はサムスンに免罪符を与え、ようやく下された一部の有罪判決も、すぐさま大統領が恩赦を与えてしまった。このような状況の中で、無力な個人にできることは一体何であろうか。だが、この現状を黙って見てはいられないという人もいる。

 全南大学で哲学を教えている 金相奉キムサンボン教授がその代表だ。金教授が提案しているのは、サムスン製品の不買運動だ。それが消費者にできる最も簡単で強力な意志の表れだという。

 「プレシアン(Pressian)」はまず、サムスン製品不買運動を提案する金教授のコラムを掲載することにした。これに続きサムスンの光と闇に関する記事を継続的に紹介していく計画である。門戸は誰にでも開かれている。サムスンについて考えてみたことがある人なら、誰でも意見を送ることができる。

 最近、話題になった『サムスンを考える』の感想でもよい。それ以外にも、労働組合のない経営、協力企業を搾取する取引、役員を酷使する企業文化、クリエイティブな経営より成功事例をそのまま受け継ぐ経営戦略、合理的なプロセスではなく人脈に依存した問題解決の慣行、賄賂造成及び脱税疑惑、会長の顔色をうかがいながら物事を進めていく皇帝式経営、元秘書室に代表される会長親衛組織の専横な振る舞いなど、サムスンをめぐる諸問題に関する意見も大歓迎だ。

サムスンの過ちを弁護する意見、またはサムスンが成し遂げた成果に関する意見も待っている。金教授のコラムをはじめ、これからこの空間に掲載される意見に対する反論も歓迎する。意見はmendrami@pressian.com まで。「編集者」






삼성일반노조란?

-지역,업종을 망라한
삼성관련노동자들의 조직입니다.

-초기업단위 삼성일반노동조합은
삼성그룹계열사, 사내하청,
협력업체등 삼성관련노동자들을
조직대상으로 합니다.

홈페이지주소
http://www.samsunggroupunion.org/
E-mail:sinojo21@hanmail.net

h 15, 2011

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Site Fwd: [stop samsung] 300+ Samsung security cameras record a young worker’s four attempts at suicide, yet fail to save him



* Image source: SHARP 반도체 노동자의 건강과 인권 지킴이, 반올림(클릭), 2011년 3월 11일
__________________________________
* 관련 사이트
__________________________________

300+ Samsung security cameras record a young worker’s four attempts at suicide, yet fail to save him
March 5, 2011

One of the latest of a long string of victims of anti-union South Korean conglomerate Samsung, is Samsung LCD facility engineer Kim Joo-hyun, who died by committing suicide on January 11, 2011. He was 25 years old (26 in the Korean way of counting age). Since then it has been more than 50 days. His family – his parents and his elder sister – have been postponing the burial of Joo-hyun’s body until now, as expression of their expectation of justice. Joo-hyun’s body remains at the morgue.

The family’s first demand is an apology. Because the day that he fell from the 13th floor of his Samsung worker dormitory, there were 300 cameras around the dormitory, recording everything.

Just after his death, his father went to the police and they showed him an edited video. They explained to him that he had fallen himself, and that thus it was suicide, not murder. The family spent 10 more days, trying to get the raw, unedited footage of the surveillance video. And they found that actually, he had tried four times to jump. The first two times, he tried and gave up himself, returning to his room. But the third time, when he was at the edge of the balcony on the 13th floor, he was found by another person in the dormitory. That person called the Crisis Help Centre (an office inside Samsung), and then 3-4 men came and persuaded him and escorted him to go back to his room on the 6th floor. But inexplicably, after talking with him a few minutes, the men left the room, leaving him there – alone. After another 10 minutes, Joo-hyun came out – and succeeded in jumping and falling to his death.

After realizing this from the raw videos, the family asked:

1) Why did the company let him try repeatedly?
2) Why did the men leave Joo-hyun alone?
3) Why did they not even call his family or other friends? Joo-hyun had his cellphone.

But Samsung until now has given no answer.

The family’s targets are Samsung, the police and the Ministry of Labor. Kim Joo-hyun worked 12-15 hours a day. He couldn’t rest even on his holidays. He would get calls from the factory to come to work, as if he was on call (though his job is not of an on-call nature). He could not sleep or rest enough. He only visited his hometown one to two times a month, sometimes even only once in two months.

His suicide can be considered suicide from overwork – karo-jisatsu in Japanese, something which can be legally compensated in Japan.

Joo-hyun’s hardship at Samsung

Joo-hyun had been at Samsung for about one year. He had joined Samsung in November 2009 to work as a facility engineer in the fab (fabrication) department of Samsung LCD factory; he was to keep the machines running smoothly.

He had severe skin problems and signs of depression by the time he committed suicide. Just a month or two after he began work in the ‘clean room’, he began to get mild symptoms of atopic dermatitis (like eczema), but it soon became very severe, especially on the side of his legs. When he showed his painful legs to his father in July, his father could see the top layer of skin was very damaged, and even discharging some liquid. It was very itchy and painful for Joo-hyun. He finally requested to change his job duties, and was re-assigned to another location and job in the factory. But in the new department also, he got severely stressed. The supervisors abused him, especially looking down on him for his education level, as he was a graduate of a two-year college.
Moreover, from the beginning of his job, even when he had been working in the clean room, he was forced to write a 20-page report immediately the day after, if there was ever any mistake or damage to the equipment. Thus, even after working extremely long hours and while suffering from skin damage and abuse from superiors at the workplace, he would have to go home and stay up to write the 20-page report. The treatment of workers in the factory was like towards soldiers, or children – typical of many Samsung factories, and apparently of many electronics factories, even in China and Taiwan.

Family and supporters protest

Since a few days after Joo-hyun’s death, Joo-hyun’s family members have been picketing every morning in front of the Samsung LCD factory; they have been doing so for more than 40 days. They also picket near the dormitory, usually in the afternoon, but have not been allowed to go inside anymore. The family and supporter have also recently begun to picket one hour a day during the week, in front of Samsung Headquarters.

SHARPs and KCTU have also written to and protested to the government and police to demand a thorough investigation. The sad death of young Joo-hyun is only one in a long string of tragic deaths of young Samsung workers in South Korea.

Monday, February 28, 2011, was the 49th day since the death of Joo-hyun. It is the day when it is traditionally believed that a soul will return to heaven. The family of Joo-hyun and their supporters conducted a ceremony at Chun-an Station square, to commemorate Joo-hyun’s death and call for the public to join in demanding Samsung take responsibility.

Samsung’s non-response

Strangely (or not), Samsung has kept silent in response to the family’s pleas. Yet every morning at 8 a.m., and steadily in rotating shifts until 10 p.m., a man can be found keeping the family in surveillance at the funeral hall where Joo-hyun’s funeral had been held.

Samsung and LG’s LCD factories

Having a dormitory for workers is not very common in Korea. Yet Samsung built a huge dormitory which houses at least several hundred workers.

Just 8 days earlier, another Samsung worker had committed suicide, jumping from another place in the dormitory. She was 23 years old. In the Samsung dormitory, an apartment has three rooms, and three workers stay in each room. The number of apartments per floor is not exactly known, but there are at least 13 floors.

It is quite possible that suicides have been happening in other factories such as in LG. However LG’s main workforce is dispatch (temporary) workers, and they do have a union, at least in form. On the other hand, Samsung’s main workforce is regular (formal) workers, and Samsung is adamantly anti-union. Samsung workers thus usually work longer, generally expecting to work for their life in the company. But with no way to handle the grievance between union and company, the family must appeal to the public. In spite of the public appeals, Samsung has remained unresponsive – only making itself appear more culpable.

Samsung workers should be happy and enjoying their work for a great brand and pride of the nation, but instead they have been suffering and dying in increasing numbers, shushed by the company and even ignored by government authorities. We appeal to the public who reads this blog, to let more people know about what happened to Kim Joo-hyun, as well as the others whose stories have been shared here. Only through such support and solidarity can the small Davids of Samsung worker victims fight against the Goliath of anti-union Samsung conglomerate and the South Korean government for justice.

We urge you to leave your messages of condolence and solidarity to the grieving family of Kim Joo-hyun in the comments. We will translate them and share with his family.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Text Fwd: Samsung blocks investigation on an LCD engineer’s suicide

Kim Jeong, the elder sister of Kim Ju-hyeon, holds brother’s portrait in a request to speak with a representative in front of the Samsung Electronics headquarters in Seoul. (Photo by Lim Ji-sun) 



Hankyoreh
Samsung blocks investigation on an LCD engineer’s suicide
: Samsung has refused dialogue, while the Labor Ministry has refused disclosure of employment regulations and Lee Ju-hyeon’s health examination
By Lim Ji-sun  
  
As workers streamed out of the building for lunch at noon on Thursday, three women stood in front of the head office of Samsung Electronics in Seoul’s Seocho neighborhood holding a funeral portrait and wailing. The women are the mother, older sister, and aunt of Kim Ju-hyeon, a worker at the company’s Tangjeong LCD complex who committed suicide in his dormitory on Jan. 11. Kim was 25.

Thursday marked one week since the bereaved family members, who had previously issued their calls for an investigation in front of the Tangjeong complex in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, assumed their positions in front of the head office in Seoul. Kim’s older sister Jeong, 28, said, “We came to Seoul after the people at the Tangjeong complex told us, ‘It is out of our hands now, go tell the head office,’ but nobody will meet with us.”

Samsung positioned employees to physically prevent Kim’s family members from entering the building. The same scene has been repeated for a full week, with dozens of men positioned at the entrance to the main building to block the bereaved family members.
Shockingly, the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) has also been silent to their demands for an investigation. On Feb. 28, the 49th day since Kim’s death, the ministry notified them of a decision not to disclose Samsung Electronics’ employment regulations, explaining that they were Samsung’s “trade secrets.”

This decision has been called unprecedented even by those within MOEL.

“The employment regulations are a document that is made well-known to all workers, clearly specifying their working conditions and so forth,” said a MOEL official. “I cannot fathom how this could be a trade secret.”

“In my eight years as a labor attorney, I have never seen the Ministry of Employment and Labor refuse to disclose a company’s employment regulations,” said Lee Jeong-ran, a labor attorney with the group Banollim, a civic organization that advocates for the health and human rights of workers in the semiconductor industry. “The decision not to disclose the regulations is evidence that the Ministry of Employment and Labor is assigning itself the role of Samsung’s puppet,” Lee added.

Samsung Electronics stated, “[The employment regulations] are designated internally as something to be kept confidential from the outside.”

MOEL also said that no data exists on suicides and declined to disclose the findings of Kim Ju-hyeon’s special health evaluation, on the grounds that it was “under investigation.”

Kim, who began work as an equipment engineer on Samsung Electronics’ LCD color filter production line in January 2010, jumped to his death from the 13th floor of his dormitory. He had been suffering from stress due to workdays lasting over 12 hours, as well as a skin disease of unknown cause. Fifty days after his death, no funeral has yet been held.

Banollim and other groups that have battled Samsung Electronics over occupational leukemia cases designated the third week of March as “memorial week for workers who have died from semiconductor and electronics industry accidents.” They plan to hold rallies during the week at sites such as Seoul Station and the area near the main offices of Samsung.
  

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Photos Fwd: Dead Samsung workers' family protest

All the image source: Samsung General Labor Union, Feb. 21, 2011
삼성 일반 노조, 2011년 2월 21일(클릭)

*Related blogs 관련 블로그들: click HERE (여기 클릭/ 영/국문)and HERE

Mother and sister of Mr. Kim Joo-Hyun, the deceased Samsung Electronics LCD worker who made suicide at the age of 26 in Jan. this year after suffering occupational disease long time, protest in front of the Samsung headquarter, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.The sign reads: Suicide at the age of 26 by jumping down!!! The Samsung Electronics' chocking no-labor union policy! The workers of leukemia, suicide and lay-off are the victims of the no labor union policy management!

The big banner reads:The Samsung workers are workers also. Let's establish a labor union and be loved by our families!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Text Fwd: Court rules against Samsung chairman in Cheil Industries malfeasance case

* Image source: Banolim (Original source: News Cham)
Workers' forum on Samsug: The domination structure of Samsung and its no labor union policy
삼성, 무노조 경영 위해 오늘도 ‘전쟁중’
[한국사회포럼2011]삼성의 지배구조와 무노조 경영
(클릭)




Hankyoreh
Court rules against Samsung chairman in Cheil Industries malfeasance case
: Lee Kun-hee was ordered to pay compensation for illegal actions used to transfer management rights to his children
By Song Gyung-hwa

A court issued a ruling Friday ordering Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, 69, to provide compensation for damages caused to the Cheil Industries corporation through acts of malfeasance in his duties for arranging for the affiliate company to abandon plans to acquire convertible bonds (CBs) for Samsung Everland, an effective holding company for the Samsung Group, in order to hand the group’s management rights to his children, including Samsung Electronics President Lee Jae-yong, 43.

In its ruling on a shareholders’ lawsuit filed against Lee Kun-hee and Cheil Industries board members by Korea University Professor Jang Ha-sung and other minority shareholders at Cheil Industries, the Gimcheon branch of Daegu District Court, under Judge Choe Wol-yeong, ordered Lee to “provide 13 billion Won in compensation to Cheil Industries.”

In its ruling, the court said that both Lee “engaged in acts of malfeasance in their duties, as Mr. Lee used the Samsung Group secretariat to compel Cheil Industries not to acquire the convertible bonds, with the goal of transferring Samsung Group management rights to his children, including Lee Jae-yong, while avoiding taxes such as the gift tax, while Cheil management, through consultation with the secretariat, made the decision to abandon the convertible bond acquisition.”

“Mr. Lee et al. are responsible for compensating Cheil Industries for damages suffered due to this malfeasance and negligence,” the court said.

In 1996, Samsung Everland issued CBs at the below-market rate of 7,700 Won per share, but corporate shareholders, including Cheil Industries, abandoned their acquisition attempt, and the CBs were acquired instead by Lee Kun-hee’s children, including Lee Jae-yong, Lee Boo-jin, and Lee Seo-hyun.

The court said, “The price of issue at the time was extremely low relative to the actual value, and Cheil Industries had no reason for abandoning the acquisition.” It calculated the total damages by reassessing the actual price per share at 79,086 Won.


Previously, the Samsung special prosecutor indicted Lee for issuing Everland CBs at below-market rates, but the Supreme Court found him not guilty in May 2009. Lee, a member of the Cheil Industries board of directors, has never been indicted for abandoning the CB issuance.

Regarding the verdict, Solidarity for Economic Reform President and Hansung University Professor Kim Sang-jo said, “It has come to light through a civil ruling that the special prosecutor should have indicted Lee on malfeasance charges for the Cheil Industries disfranchisement issue as well.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Photo Fwd: A dead Samsung worker's father cries

* Image source: Banolim, Voice of People, Feb. 11, 2011 민중의 소리, 2011년 2월 11일 기사, '"주현이 엄마를 시신 안치실에 못가게 했습니다": 故김주현 죽음 이후 한 달, 아버지의 눈물' (클릭)

고(故) 김주현씨의 부친 김명복씨가 천안 삼성전자 공장 앞에서 일인시위를 하고 있다. ⓒ반올림
Kim Myung-Bok(54) has been doing one man protest in front of the Samsung LCD factory, Tamjeong, Choongnam province near one month after his son, Mr. Kim Joo-Hyun, a Samsung worker, made suicide suffering from occupational disease. For more on the story, see Stop Samsung blog(스탑 삼성 블로그)

* Information thanfully provided by Mr. Go Gwon-Il, Gangjeong village, Jeju Island
* 제주도 강정 마을 고권일 선생님 정보 감사히 제공

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Photo Fwd: Relay one man protest in front of the Samsung headquarter


* Image source: Samsung General Labor Union, Feb. 9, 2011
삼성 일반 노동 조합, 2011년 2월 9일(기사 클릭)

Relay one man protest every Thursday in front of the Samsung headquarter, Gangnam-Gu, Seoul re-starts on Feb. 8, 2011.

The sign reads:
'Lay-off is murder! The Samsung workers die for leukemia and oppression of no labor union policy Let’s establish a democratic labor union by the Samsung workers’ solidarity: by the Samsung General Labor Union' (* not acknowledged by the Samsung Co.)

Sunday, February 6, 2011

[Jeju Update] Samsung workers, Samsung, and the Jeju naval base 삼성 노동자들, 삼성, 그리고 제주 해군 기지

* 본문 국문은 영문 밑을 보시길.

* Image source: Ku Do-Hee, Voice of People, Feb. 4, 2011 민중의 소리 구도희 기자, 2011년 2월 4일(클릭)
'portrait of Kim Joo-Hyun, the deceased Samsung worker in mortuary
'빈소에 있는 고 김주현 노동자의 초상'


* Image source: Samsung General Labor Union, Jan. 26, 2011 삼성 일반 노조 웹사이트, 2011년 1월 26일(클릭)

' Workers and activists have been doing relay one-man protest in front of the Samsung factories in Suwon and Cheonan, every Wednesday, to demand the withdrawal of unjust lay-off of a worker who claimed for company's acknowledgement on labor union.'


'노동자들과 활동가들은 수원, 천안 삼성 공장 앞에서 매부 수요일, 노조 인정을 요구했던 한 노동자의 부당 해고 철회를 요구하며 매주 일인 시위를 벌이고 있습니다.'
________________________________________

Despite New Year holidays (Feb. 2 to 6) in lunar calendar in Korea, there are people who cannot enjoy them. The bereaved family members of the deceased Mr. Kim Joo-Hyun, a worker in the Samsung Electronics LCD, City of Cheonan are part of those.

Even though, it was Jan. 11 when Mr. Kim Joo Hyun made suicide by jumping from the rooftop of the factory dormitory, his family members are still keeping mortuary where his portrait is still being placed on, demanding acknowledgement and apology from Samsung for the cause of Kim’s death. The investigations on the cause of his death, such as excessive working time and on company's negligence on his suicide have been still going on as well, the Voice of People reports.

The Stop Samsung blog has reported on Jan. 14:

‘He suffered from skin disease due to chemicals and depression because of severe job stress. This shocking news is even more disturbing since it follows a rash of similar suicides by young workers at the Foxconn factory in China and inspires us to increase our determination to bring justice for the Samsung workers and families. He is the second suicide at Samsung this month! See the article by Elizabeth Grossman HERE for more background and details. In memory of Kim Joo hyun, we ask that you join the Samsung Accountability Campaign on the Causes page HERE.'

For Samsung workers’ occupational deaths and protests, see HERE and HERE as well.

Samsung is not only infamous for its no-labor union policy but also for its omnipotent abuse of power throughout South Korea. The Republic of Korea is called as the Samsung Republic in satire.

Samsung is also involving in Korea Aerospace industries along with Hyundae (The current president Lee Myung-Bak is originally from Hyundae) and Daewoo etc., producing and exporting many weapon systems, for example its branch, Samsung Tales, the South Korea's leading maker and exporter of naval combat systems.

It has been alarming when the Jeju media (Jeju Sori1, Jeju Sori 2, Media Jeju) reported that the Jeju Island government had made contract for partnership with Samsung C & T to achieve export of 1trillion won on Jan. 21, 2011.

It reported that the Jeju Island and Samsung made contact to collaborate on scouting for bright export goods, supporting for foreign marketing and inheriting on export know-how for the Jeju Island government officers.

The Samsung C & T is told to be the matrix of Samsung with its total sale price exceeding 10 trillion 876 billion won last year, which is near four times of the Jeju Island budget this year. It was also told that all the information and resources acquired during the process of execution on the agreement conclusion would be ‘absolute secrete.’

Further, the Samsung C & T has made contract with the navy for the naval base construction along with Daerim who is involving the construction on space museum through its consortium. The Samsung C & T is also being involved in KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Corporation) consortium along with the KEPCO, Hyundae and Doosan Heavy Industry, which has made contract with the United Arab Emirates on nuclear power plant in Dec. , 2009.

Jan. 21 was the next day when the Jeju media reported the contradictory decision by the members of the special committee on the settlement of the conflict on naval base, Island Council, who were told to have decided to urge the prime minister for earlier legislation on the revised bill on the Jeju special law which included the support basis on the Jeju naval base, while 40% of the members had voiced on the unjust process on the annulment of the absolute preservation areas in the Gangjeong village.

The Samsung, supporting the drive by the central and Jeju Island government, Jeju Island Council for Jeju being one of the seven wonders of nature, is grasping the Jeju Island, as it has wielded power throughout South Korea. Please watch Samsung. Please boycott Samsung product in your countries and if you can, protest on its oppression of workers and involvement in the Jeju naval base construction.


음력 새해 휴일(2월 2일에서 6일) 에도 불구, 휴일을 즐길 수 없는 사람들이 있습니다. 천안시 삼성 전자 LCD의 고인이 된 노동자 김주현님의 가족들이 그 일부입니다.

김주현님께서 공장 기숙사 옥상에서 뛰어내림으로서 자살한 것은 1월 11일이었음에도 불구, 그의 가족들은 김씨의 죽음의 원인에 대해 삼성이 인정하고 사과할 것을 요구하며 그의 영정이 아직 안치되어 있는 빈소를 지키고 있습니다. 민중의 소리는 과도한 노동 시간, 그의 자살에 대한 회사의 회피등 그의 죽음의 원인에 대한 조사들도 아직 진행되고 있는 중이라고 보도합니다.

스탑 삼성 블로그는 1월 14일 보도한 바 있습니다:

그는 화학 물질들로 인한 심각한 피부병과 과도한 직장 스트레스로 인한 우울로 괴로워했습니다. 이 충격적 소식은 중국 팍스콘 공장에서의 젊은 노동자들의 유사한 다발적 자살뒤에 이어진 것이기 때문에 한층 괴로운 것으로 삼성에 정의를 가져오기 위한 결심을 확대하도록 우리의 열망을 불러일으킵니다. 그는 이달 두번째 자살자입니다. 좀더 자세한 배경과 세부는 엘리자베쓰 그로스의 기사를 여기서 보시길. 김주현님을 기억하며 ‘원인들에 대한 삼성 감시 캠페인’ 페이지는 여기를 보시길 부탁드립니다.

삼성 노동자들의 직업병에 의한 사망과 항의들은 또한 여기여기를 보시길.

삼성은 무노조 정책뿐만 아니라 남한 전체를 통하여 무소불위의 권력 남용으로도 악명이 높습니다. 대한민국은 삼성 공화국으로 풍자화됩니다.

삼성은 현대(현재 이명박 대통령은 원래 현대에서 왔음)와 대우 등과 함께 한국 우주 항공 산업에 참여하면서 많은 무기 시스템들을 생산하고 수출하는데 그 예로서 남한의 해군 전투 시스템을 주도적으로 생산하고 수출하는 지회사인 삼성 탈레스가 있습니다.

2011년 1월 21일 제주 언론 (제주 소리1, 제주 소리 2, 미디아 제주)이 제주도정이 삼성 물산과 1조원 수출을 달성하기 위해 삼성과 협력 계약을 맺었다고 보도했을 때 그것은 경계할만한 것이었다.

제주 언론은 제주도와 삼성이 유망 수출 상품 발굴, 해외 시장 지지, 그리고 제주 도정 공무원들에게 수출 노하우를 전수하는 것을 협력하기 위한 계약을 했다고 보도했습니다.

삼성 물산은 작년 총매출액이 1조 8760억원 가량을 초과하는 것과 더불어 삼성의 모태라 하는데 그것은 올해 제주도 예산의 4배에 가까운 것이라 합니다. 또한 협약 체결 실행 과정 동안 획득되는 모든 정보와 자료들은 ‘절대 비밀’이라고 합니다

게다가 삼성 물산은 콘소티움을 통해 참여하는 우주 박물관 건설에 관여하는 대림과 함께 해군 기지 건설을 위해 계약을 한바 있습니다. 삼성 물산은 또한 한국 전력, 현대, 두산 중공업과 함께 2009년 12월 유나이티드 아랍 에미레이츠와 원자력 공장 수출 계약을 맺은 한국 전력 콘소티움에 참여하고 있습니다.

1월 21일은 제주 언론이 도의회 해군 기지 갈등 해소를 위한 특별 위원회의 모순되는 결정을 보도한 다음날인데 40 % 가량의 회원들이 강정 마을 절대 보전 지역들 해제의 부단한 과정에 대해 목소리를 냈던 바 있던 특위는 제주 해군 기지 지지 근거를 포함한 제주 특별법에 대한 개정안의 이른 입법화를 총리에게 촉구하기로 결정하기로 알려졌습니다.

제주가 7대 경관이 되기 위한 중앙 정부, 제주 도정, 제주 도의회의 추진을 지지하는 삼성은 자신이 남한을 통틀어 권력 행세를 하였던 것처럼 제주도를 움켜쥐고 있습니다,. 삼성을 감시하길. 여러분들 나라 삼성 제품들을 보이콧하고 하실 수 있다면 삼성의 노동자들에 대한 탄압과 제주 해군 기지 건설 참여에 항의하길 부탁드립니다.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Text Fwd: A Proclamation of 591 Social Leaders Urging the Samsung Electronics to Take the Responsibility of Laborers’ Occupational Disease


* Image source: same as the link
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A Proclamation of 591 Social Leaders Urging the Samsung Electronics to Take the Responsibility of Laborers’ Occupational Disease

“No More Victims in the Samsung Electronics
Jan. 18, 2011

In 2003, Yoo-Mee Hwang, a third-year student at Sokcho High School, was employed just before her graduation at the Samsung Electronics’ Semiconductor Plant in Giheung. She participated in the defusion process dipping wafer - a thin slice of semiconductor material - into compounds such as hydrogen peroxide and ammonium sulfide. Ji-Youn Park was also employed at Samsung Semiconductor Plant in Onyang. Unable to proceed with her study in college, she had no choice but to start working prior to high school graduation. This eighteen-year-old girl worked in the examination process handling lead solvent and other chemicals. Their pride of working in a leading corporation in South Korea withered away very soon. Both of these young girls got Acute Myeloid Leukemia after two years of work in the corporation and passed away in 2007 and 2010.

While South Korea’s gross national income per capita exceeded 20,000 U.S. dollars in 2007, adolescents from poor families are still under pressure of getting a job soon after mid-school or high-school graduation. Shoe and clothing industries in 1970s have changed into high-tech clean industries such as semiconductor and LCD, but laborers are still in danger of death from hundreds of toxic chemicals used in IT products.

Several years have passed since the laborers working at the Samsung Electronics’ Semiconductor Plants in Giheung and Onyang became victims of Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Nothing has been done, however, for their industrial injury treatment and compensation. The danger of working in these high-tech industries has increasingly been revealed after the continuing social exposure of the deaths of the Samsung Electronics’ laborers. According to the Supporters of Health and Rights of People in Semiconductor Industry (SHARPS), over 100 laborers got lethal disease including leukemia, lymphoma, and brain tumor and 31 have already passed away. Although a further systematic examination is needed for confirming the causes of these deaths, this approximate number of victims in a single corporation is already an alarming signal to the society.

Afraid of harming its image, Samsung has denied its responsibility and rejected to provide injury compensation for its laborers. The governmental branches under charge of industrial safety and accidents such as the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, and the Korean Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service are putting emphasis on industrial security over laborers’ rights. As the Samsung Electronics and the South Korean government shirk their responsibilities and as our society disregard the people who actually make the fascinating smart phone and maintain high speed internet, the laborers who devoted their lives to the Samsung Electronics are taking occupational disease and passing away without proper treatment.

Will we keep disregarding these laborers of the Samsung Electronics who are lack of time and energy? In order to resolve this problem in regard to occupational disease, we urge the Samsung Electronics, the government, and the National Assembly to do the following:

First, Samsung should admit its responsibility of the laborers’ occupational disease and do its best to solve the problem.

Samsung is the leading corporation in semiconductor industry, occupying 35% in the DRAM semiconductor world market and exceeding 5 trillion won in the second quarter of this year. Samsung’s attitude toward this case of occupational disease, however, is very disappointing. It is obvious that laborers in semiconductor industry handle toxic chemicals and that they are able to accidently be exposed to those chemicals. Samsung has ignored this obvious fact, only caring for its faultless image. Samsung has neglected its suffering laborers and preventing them from receiving industrial injury compensation from the government.

Instead of concealing the case, Samsung should take the responsibility of its victims. The first step is to admit that the suffering laborers as the victims of occupational disease.

Second, the government should confirm the diseases as industrial accidents, conduct a reliable and systematic examination, and take charge of revising the relevant legislations.

While 16 Samsung laborers suffering from occupational disease have applied for industrial accident by now, 10 cases have been disapproved by the government and 6 are still pending. While the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance aims at protecting laborers by immediately compensating for laborers’ industrial accident, the government is asking for a clearer scientific causal relation from the victims who do not even have information accessibility. Furthermore, it is revealed in a recent inspection of the administration affairs that the government took allowed the Samsung Electronics to actively participate in the administrative lawsuit filed by the laborers. Now it is confusing whether the government serves for employees’ welfare or Samsung’s welfare.

Doing its duty to protect laborers’ life and health, the government should admit the suffering laborers as victims of industrial accident. In order to serve the purpose of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance, the government should revise the legislations related to industrial safety and accident and relax the responsibility of the victims to provide scientific evidence in support of occupational disease.

Third, the National Assembly should force the government to conduct a reliable examination and revise the legislations related to industrial accident and chemical management.

In the most recent inspection of the administration affairs, both governing and opposition parties urged the government to solve the case of Samsung laborers’ occupational disease. While there has been a single examination from the government, however, it was suspicious in terms of impartiality and reliability. The current examination conducted by Samsung itself is also far from being impartial.

Accordingly, both governing and opposition parties in the National Assembly should collaborate with each other to conduct a reliable examination at the national-level. In addition, both parties should immediately revise the legislations related to industrial accident and chemical management and provide a prompt and impartial protection for the laborers suffering from industrial accidents.

December 21, 2010

Best, 591 Social Leaders;
- 88 Health and Medical practitioner
- 159 Legal Experts
- 33 Professors
- 65 Writers
- 3 Religious Leaders
- 45 Human Rights Movement Leaders
- 37 Women Rights Movement Leaders
- 64 Labor Movement Leaders
- 87 Civil Society Campaign Leaders

Download
20101221_591 social leaders.doc

Friday, January 14, 2011

[Site Fwd: Stop Samsung] Suicide of young Samsung worker in Korea

* Image source: Hankyoreh

'Abolish the Samsung Republic!'
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Stop Samsung
Suicide of young Samsung worker in Korea
January 14, 2011

Dear readers:

We have just learned that Kim Joo hyun, a 26-year-old man who worked in the Samsung electronics LCD factory in Chun-ahn city in Korea, jumped from the roof of the dormitory and killed himself in the early morning of January 11. He suffered from skin disease due to chemicals and depression because of severe job stress. This shocking news is even more disturbing since it follows a rash of similar suicides by young workers at the Foxconn factory in China and inspires us to increase our determination to bring justice for the Samsung workers and families. He is the second suicide at Samsung this month! See the article by Elizabeth Grossman at http://huff.to/eYQGXr for more background and details.
Kim Kyung-rok 

In memory of Kim Joo hyun, we ask that you join the Samsung Accountability Campaign on the Causes page at:

http://www.causes.com/causes/546307-samsung-accountability-campaign?m=79a39276

Already more than 800 people have joined and there have been many important campaign updates posted to keep people aware of new developments. Please join this Cause and continue your support for the Samsung workers and families. Thanks!

Also, the campaign is asking that you sign the International Petition to support Samsung workers & families.

To date, more than 450 key activists and leaders from around the world have endorsed the statement and list of demands contained in the petition. To see the entire text and to view the list of endorsements, see http://www.gopetition.com/petition/40246.html .

Thanks very much for your support and please let your friends know – we must support the people who are suffering while making the technology that we rely on!


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See also
Hankyoreh (* Thanks to Steve Zeltzer)
Samsung shortens occupational hazard study as 15th worker dies
:Samsung’s compensation for experts conducting the study has also drawn fire for possibly influencing neutrality
Jan. 13, 2011


It has been confirmed that a work environment study commissioned by Samsung Electronics on its semiconductor production line last July was virtually completed in November. Moreover, it has been belatedly learned that a former employee who was developed leukemia after working on the semiconductor line for 20 years died in November.


Hankyoreh Special: Samsung Dynasty

Monday, January 10, 2011

[Jeju Update] Movie Critic Yang was released on Jan. 9/ Navy cleans wire fences? / Navy’s propaganda in the Jeju Airport

* 이미지를 클릭하시면 확대됩니다.
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* Thanks, Bruce Gagnon to upload stories in his blog (click here)
* 브루스 개그논, 관련 글을 실어 주셔 감사합니다 (여기 클릭)

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A movie critic Yang Yoon-Mo was released from the Jeju Prison on Jan. 9
영화 평론가, 양윤모 선생님, 제주 교도소에서 1월 9일 석방

(* Images thanks to Mr. Go, Gangjeong, Jeju Island)






Yang Yoon-Mo, a movie critic who has been doing the tent vigil against the Jeju naval base construction in the Joongduk coast for near two years and has been imprisoned since Dec. 27 when 34 people were arrested by the Jeju police during their peaceful press interview against the entry of about 60 construction trucks but released on the same day except for him was eventually released on Jan. 9. The navy had indicted him with the charge of the destruction of the navy propaganda boards when the ex-Minister of National Defense, Kim Tae-Young visited Gangjeong, provoking the villagers’ protest against him on last March 20, 2010. Yang had not paid the navy the fines of 1,900,000 won for the protest against the naval base construction that had not been welcomed by the local residents and had only brought their resistance against it. You can see the images of his tent and the destroyed navy propaganda boards HERE.

When he was arrested on Dec. 27, the prosecutors imprisoned him for the unpaid fines. Even though he expressed his will to be jailed instead paying fines, the villagers knowing his bad health due to his long tent life and struggle, collected their pocket moneys and eventually saved him from the jail. Beside the villagers, the members of the Pan-Island Committee and some citizens gathered money for him. The scanned banking tables in the above are the items of the contributors in detail.

Some villagers held the humble party for him and Yang expressed his thanks and delight to the villagers. According to Mr. Go living in the Gangjeong village, who sent the story on his release, Yang expressed his decision to live more earnestly as a Gangjeong villager (He had moved his address to the Gangjeong village months ago) and his will to join the villagers’ relay one man protest in front of the Island Hall, that starts on Jan. 10.
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Navy cleaned the wire fence in front of the makeshift naval base gate area. Why?
( Jan. 7, 2011)
해군, 해군 기지 가설 게이트 앞 철조망 치우다. 왜? (2010 년 1월 7일)
(* Images thanks to Mr. Go, Gangjeong, Jeju Island)



The letters on the top of the navy gate read:

'A new hope being together with the Jeju Island people
THE JEJU NAVAL BASE (Civilian-military complex tour beauty harbor) SITE'
Logos of the ROK Navy, Samsung and Daerim are shown at the bottom.



The signs read:

No Jeju Naval Base that fakes as a civilian-military complex tour beauty harbor
-by the Committee against the naval base of the Gangjeong village people’s council

For the future of our children, let’s prevent the construction of military base
that destroys the Peace Island, Jeju!

- by the Pan-Island Committee for the Prevention of the Jeju Military Base
and for the Realization of the Island of Peace



The Gangjeong villagers have repulsed that the navy has not kept its promise of not installing wire fence around its planned base site. The navy has built the makeshift fence right after Jan. 18, 2010 when it raided the village early in the dawn on, accompanied with the police who arrested 47 people (most of them were villagers). At the time, the villagers, having lain their bodies on the ground, resisted against the naval base construction. Since then, the navy has also built up the ugly wire fences around the gate along with its propaganda boards.

It was witnessed around 5 pm, on Jan. 7, 2011, that the navy was removing the wire fences it had installed around the gate. It was the next day that the officers of the Prime Minister office visited the site during their two days and three nights’ schedule in the site. The Prime Minister, meeting with the Gangjeong villagers in November 2010, had pledged them the Joint Chief of the Navy’s apology to the villagers for the rushed procedures of the base construction without the righteous consultation process of hearing opinions by the villagers who had been against the base construction. The pledge has, of course, not been realized and on Jan. 7, 2011, the villagers sent the Joint Chief of the Navy their official letter on their request to stop the naval base construction during the period of the lawsuit appeal on the disposal of the annulment of the absolute preservation area [in the Gangjeong village]. In the letter, the villagers said, “Regarding the point that you, Joint Chief of the Navy visits the Gangjeong village yourself and express your regretfulness, we inform you that we cannot accept your expression of it because the villagers have decided to deny conditional acceptance of the naval base and to oppose against its construction, as a result of our emergency village meeting on last Dec. 22, 2010.”

Do the Central and Island governments and navy are trying to mitigate the villagers’ fury on the base construction? The symptoms of such tactics seemed to be shown here and there in the village and Island. Or do they have any other plans to further infuriate the villagers, removing the wire fences around the gate?

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Navy's propaganda Exhibition in the Jeju Airport
해군, 제주 공항에서 선전전
(* Photos taken on Jan. 7, 2011)


The letters read:
'ROK Navy/ Marines
Photo exhibition for public information
Defense headquarter of the Jeju, Republic of Korea Navy'





* 아래는 고권일 선생님께서 2011년 1월 9일 양윤모 선생님 석방 소식과 관련, 보내신 글입니다.

눈이 많이와서 제주시와 서귀포간의 교통이 두절될지도 모른다는 생각에 양교수를 석방하기위한 발걸음이 빨라졌다.

교도소에서는 나올때까지 밖에서 기다려야한다고 했고 눈을 맞으며 5분여간 기다리자 잡혀갈 때 옷으로 갈아입고 웃으며 나오는 양교수를 만났다.

가지고간 두부를 받아먹으며 “그래도 나오니까 좋네” 하며 활짝웃는 양교수.

돌아오는길에 점심을 먹으며 술을 한 잔 기울였다.

앞으론 강정주민으로 더욱 열심히 살아야겠다는 결심을 했다고 한다.

일인시위 참가자 명단에도 꼭 끼워달라고 한다.

교도소에서 만난 바닥인생들과 대화하며 제주민의 사고방식을 조금 이해 할 수 있었다고 한다. 그 안에도 현재 사회의 축소판인 모습이 있어서 수감자간의 위계질서를 느낄 수 있어서

조금 씁쓸하기도 했다고.

저녁때 환영회가 열렸다.

조경철, 서울식당부부, 김종환, 고종인등이 술을 사들고 와서 떠들썩했다.

감기기운이 있던 양교수는 사람들과 포옹하며 “강정이 내 생명의 근원인 것 같다”며 내내 싱글벙글이다.

내일부터 강정주민들은 일인시위에 돌입한다.

어려운가운데도 2주간의 일정이 잡혀졌다.

날씨가 걱정이지만 어렵게 시작되는 투쟁이니만큼 끝까지 가야된다는 기세가 높다.

한참 해군기지싸움이 달아오를때에도 일인시위는 참가자를 정하는 문제가 어려웠다고 하며

이정도만 모여도 어떻게든 해낼 수 있을 것 같다며 다들 낙관하는 분위기다.