Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering's unionized regular employees hold a rally at the company's shipyard on Geoje Island in South Gyeongsang Province. Korea Times file

By Lee Kyung-min

The month-long strike by unionized subcontractors of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DMSE) has developed into a conflict between its unionized regular full-time regular workers and its subcontracted workers, as indicated by a request for a police investigation by the shipbuilder's regular unionized workers, according to industry watchers, Wednesday.

Whether and how fast the collective move finds a breakthrough will influence the pace of recovery in Korea's leading manufacturing sector. Korean shipbuilders are one of the country's growth drivers and a global top player, having secured a 45 percent of the global advance orders in the first half of this year, after years of an industry-wide slowdown.

The operations of the shipbuilder remain halted temporarily due to a branch of the company's subcontractors occupying the firm's shipyard on Geoje Island, South Gyeongsang Province.

The collective action began about 40 days ago, soon after their demands of a 30 percent wage increase were not met on June 2. They also asked for a 300-percent increase in their bonuses and the firm should give a paycheck to workers that are not hired directly by the firm and handle only labor-related issues.

The labor-management negotiations have not taken place, mostly because management is not willing to accept the subcontracted workers' demands.

The refusal aggravated them, leading to some of them thwarting the floating of a ship on June 18, a production disruption that has since escalated, after seven subcontracted workers began to occupy the dock around the clock starting from June 22.

In response, some regular full-time unionized workers of the shipbuilding firm filed a request for a police investigation, Monday, demanding thorough and full accountability for causing immense losses for the firm.

"The livelihoods of hardworking DSME workers are being held hostage by a couple of (subcontracted) workers making unreasonable demands," they said in a statement. "We suffered 280 billion won ($214 million) in losses last month alone. We ask that law and order be restored and that the illegal strikes be halted once and for all."

This sentiment is shared by small partner firms of DSME. "The illegal strike of more than 40 days threatens the survival of 100,000 people whose livelihoods are closely tied to the performance of DSME. We ask President Yoon Suk-yeol to step up and resolve the issue if the current labor struggle sees no immediate breakthrough."

Members of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea visited the shipyard and had a meeting with the striking workers. "Is this the only way to guarantee workers' rights to survive? We can stop this struggle that ruins your health. Let's find an opportunity to make this work for all parties involved," Rep. Jin Sung-joon said.