By Cho Jae-hyon
It took 309 days for her to come down from the top of the crane. She spent 10 months in a tiny driver’s seat 35 meters up in the air.
For a woman who staged such a long sit-in on a giant crane at a shipyard, Kim Jin-suk looked girlish on the ground ― smiling broadly and naturally. In a short video clip taken in a hospital ward and posted on YouTube, she talked, laughed and gesticulated cheerfully, while thanking her supporters.
In a classic example of David and Goliath, she made Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction succumb, pulling off a deal to reinstate 94 laid-off workers.
A former welder of the shipbuilding company, Kim descended the ladder of the crane last Thursday after unionists endorsed the agreement.
After setting her feet on the ground, the 51-year-old, a member of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, said she wanted to go to a jjimjilbang (public sauna) and eat ramen.
But it may take a while before she plunges herself into a hot public sauna as she faces investigation for business obstruction and other charges.
For labor and progressive civic groups, she is a heroine willing to put her life at risk for a cause. For conservatives, however, she is just a law-breaking criminal who should be put behind bars. To them, she is nothing more than a left-leaning activist who caused a social commotion and damaged the public good.
For their part, police initially attempted to apprehend her right after she came down from the top of the crane but had to back off in the face of fierce resistance from the unionized workers. And the prosecution also failed to get a court warrant to arrest her.
They put aside disputes over the justification of an arrest warrant for her. Once all her medical check-ups are finished, she will be held accountable for any breach of laws in line with the result of investigation.
Still, it seems that she won’t be afraid of being imprisoned as she must have put up with harsher conditions atop the crane.
Kim’s fight was all about jobs.
For workers, a job is a lifeline. This lifeline is evaporating rapidly. Without a job, they can’t simply survive due to a lack of a social safety net. There is no cushion to fall on.
That’s why a number of workers and their family members of Ssangyong Motor have committed suicide or died of diseases caused by job-related stress since April 2009 when the automaker started carrying out drastic restructuring.
Job opportunities are shrinking though top conglomerates are expanding. Amid the tighter job market, laborers are holding onto their jobs desperately. But in the eyes of employers, they are just expendable.
The planned reinstatement of workers at Hanjin Heavy does not necessarily mean the end of long-standing conflicts in the company. Despite the latest agreement to reemploy the laid-off workers, there are still many other workers made redundant. It is said some unionists are not happy about the terms of the agreement. The peaceful mood at the shipyard is quite fragile and the situation could turn uglier if the shipyard in Yeongdo continues to fail to clinch orders.
Kim’s struggle, the longest one on a crane here, showcased the inability of the government and lawmakers to help address conflicts through mediation. It also showed that when the government doesn’t function, people are more willing to come forward to break an impasse than in the past.
Fed up with the inefficacy on the parts of the government and politicians, people ― especially the younger generations in their 20s and 30s ― are actively making a louder voice in policies affecting their livelihood from tuition to jobs.
Kim wouldn’t be able to come down from the crane happily without the backing from other people who gathered from across the country at the shipyard riding “Hope Buses.”
They wanted to give her hope. Kim said she was tempted to take her own life several times on the crane but was able to make it through thanks to those who gave her hope that she will come down alive.
People are turning their back on the government as middle-class lives are collapsing and young adults are in despair.
Hope is hardly seen in Korean society. People badly need vehicles to bring them hope. They themselves are trying to change society on their own or pinning their hopes on those outside the political circle.
The saga at crane 85 underlines worsening economic and employment conditions in the country. The increasingly precarious labor market coincides with widening disparity in the ability to afford education, healthcare and housing.
This suggests the need for policymakers to give people the hope that they will fix these social and economic imbalances.