Read this article in:
28 March, 2001The U.S. autoworkers' union says workers must receive fair treatment from their employers and their government.
USA/KOREA REP: On behalf of the 1.3 million active and retired members of the United Auto Workers, the union's president, Stephen Yokich, and vice-president and director of the UAW General Motors Department, Richard Shoemaker, have written a letter of support to the Korean Metal Workers' Federation in their struggle to defend the jobs of workers at Daewoo Motor Company.
The UAW officials said that the police attack on workers at the Pupyong plant was "an outrageous display of the anti-union policies of the Korean government," and they called for the release of all those arrested during the brutal police action and in the demonstrations which followed.
Daewoo workers, they stated, were being forced to accept an unfair share of the burden imposed by the company's financial condition. "The fact that Daewoo's former chairman is now a fugitive indicates where the blame for the bankruptcy status should be placed." They said the Korean government should be doing what it could to promote the interests of Daewoo workers in light of its failure to apprehend the former chairman and the deficiencies of its own oversight of Daewoo's financial condition.
"The UAW," declared Yokich and Shoemaker, "believes that a fair solution to Daewoo's current problems will not be found in eliminating jobs in order to facilitate acquisition by General Motors Corporation -- a step we believe would be ill-advised. A solution that preserves jobs and permits the Korean economy to grow through increasing the economic wellbeing of Korean workers would be fair to Daewoo's workforce and beneficial to all Korean workers. The UAW stands with the KMWF in demanding that workers must receive fair treatment from their employers and their government."
The UAW officials said that the police attack on workers at the Pupyong plant was "an outrageous display of the anti-union policies of the Korean government," and they called for the release of all those arrested during the brutal police action and in the demonstrations which followed.
Daewoo workers, they stated, were being forced to accept an unfair share of the burden imposed by the company's financial condition. "The fact that Daewoo's former chairman is now a fugitive indicates where the blame for the bankruptcy status should be placed." They said the Korean government should be doing what it could to promote the interests of Daewoo workers in light of its failure to apprehend the former chairman and the deficiencies of its own oversight of Daewoo's financial condition.
"The UAW," declared Yokich and Shoemaker, "believes that a fair solution to Daewoo's current problems will not be found in eliminating jobs in order to facilitate acquisition by General Motors Corporation -- a step we believe would be ill-advised. A solution that preserves jobs and permits the Korean economy to grow through increasing the economic wellbeing of Korean workers would be fair to Daewoo's workforce and beneficial to all Korean workers. The UAW stands with the KMWF in demanding that workers must receive fair treatment from their employers and their government."