Korean media reports that in the nearly one year since Hanwha Group acquired Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and renamed it Hanwha Ocean, problems such as subcontracted workers’ pay packages and labor shortages have not improved. Most importantly, most of the promises made during the takeover have not been honored, which will exacerbate conflicts among workers.
Recently, the Gyeongsangnam-do branch of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union, the Daewoo Shipbuilding branch, the Geoje Tongyeong Goseong Shipbuilding Subcontracting Enterprise branch and the Welive branch held a press conference in front of Hanwha Ocean Plaza in Geoje, demanding that Hanwha Ocean pay performance bonuses to all its employees, suspend the divestiture and sale of Welive, and enter into direct hiring and direct collective bargaining with subcontracting enterprises.
According to the said agency, “Putting aside the previously promised new hiring and staffing, Hanwha Ocean’s reckless production plan has led to a high number of labor accidents, with two fatal accidents occurring earlier this year. As well, Hanwha Ocean unilaterally announced the termination of a labor-management agreement meeting that was discussing new hiring, a labor-intensity compensation system, and the establishment of performance bonus payment standards, and refused to negotiate. And these are all part of the collective bargaining agreement.”
Last June, Hanwha Group Vice Chairman Dong Kwan (DK) Kim said, “Hanwha Ocean will not artificially reorganize; we will reassemble staff members who have left and will continue to expand hiring.”
The situation of Wellive workers, who are responsible for Hanwha Ocean’s overall welfare (e.g., cleaning and catering), is also of great concern. In particular, Hanwha Ocean deliberately refused to sign a new contract with Welive, whose contract with aewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering had ended in July last year, resulting in a long period of insecurity, and the Welive branch believes that Hanwha Ocean will begin to truly “weaken the union” after the divestment.
The head of the Welive branch said, “Hanwha Ocean has been hinting at splitting Welive since its inception, and the union will inevitably lose influence if the workplace is split, which Hanwha Ocean seems to be doing.”
It was also noted that “Hanwha Group has been splitting and merging unions at will. During this process, Hanwha Group splits unions when they are slightly stronger, and creates new unions through mergers if it feels that a particular union’s influence has increased. Once a union is split, it inevitably focuses more on resolving internal conflicts.”
In response to these concerns, Hanwha Ocean personnel said, “We believe it is necessary to take over the employment relationship even if a company is selected through competitive bidding. The statement about a neutral Welive branch is also overly guarded.”