◀ anchor ▶
Today, MBC reporters met Yoo Choi-an, a subcontractor worker from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, who had been staging for 31 days in a steel structure measuring only 1 meter in width, length and height.
On the third day of hospitalization, I have only just begun to warm up.
Mr. Yoo’s heart is still heavy as the management responds with a claim for damages of 800 billion won to the struggles of the workers who demanded that even the minimum wage be evaded.
Correspondent Lee Moon-hyun.
◀ Report ▶
Right after the negotiation was concluded the other day, Choi Choi-an Yoo was taken to the hospital immediately.
I still have discomfort in my back and knees, so I have to use a wheelchair to move.
[유최안/대우조선해양 하청노동자]
“I’ve lost a lot of muscle, so what should I say now… Originally, I got a little bit of heat, but I’m not in the heat.”
He said, ‘I went into the steel structure myself to avoid being subjected to the company’s violent suppression’.
However, when the talk of ‘injecting public power’ came out at the time when the labor and management confirmed their intention to negotiate, he said he had an intuition that the prospects for negotiations became dark.
[유최안/대우조선해양 하청노동자]
“I’m going to delay negotiations. Because if we put public power in,[the management]doesn’t have to negotiate… I’m frankly scared to see the police force coming and going and helicopters flying from above, and then preparing to suppress it outside.”
Even if you work all your life, you cannot escape the minimum wage.
In the end, the negotiations were concluded with a 4.5% wage increase initially proposed by the management.
The request for a refund of 30% of wages, which had been cut since 2016, was again thwarted.
[유최안/대우조선해양 하청노동자]
“I thought it would be the end (bottom) if I got the minimum wage. I thought it wouldn’t go down any more. But (subcontractors) eat out of the four major insurances, work gets harder, people get hurt…even if our wages go up by 30%, it’s not enough for regular workers. It’s about 50% of the wage level.”
While the government is still emphasizing ‘laws and principles’, the management is demanding 800 billion won in damages from the workers.
[유최안/대우조선해양 하청노동자]
“I’ve been living on 2 million won a month since 2016. If I offered 800 billion won to people who couldn’t pay 8 million won, would they be willing to receive it? Do you have any other purpose? I am.”
This is Lee Moon-hyun from MBC News.
Video coverage: Lee Seong-jae / Video editing: Lee Ji-young
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