POSCO Strikers Blast Union Leadership

“I feel like I just escaped from hell.” Most members of the construction workers union who just got out of the POSCO headquarters they seized expressed such a sense of relief rather than the sense of defeat on July 21. They poured out complaints about the union leadership.

Union members said, “The leadership forcefully blocked the voluntary breakup of members. They made all proceedings slow down even though the situation could have ended more quickly. We were scared that extremists among them might burn down the building.”

Some even said, “As the strike prolonged, some needed medical treatment. But when we tried to get them out of the building for treatment, they threatened not to give us work.”

A member said, “As it hasn’t been long since I had surgery on my joint, I had to take medicine. But I ran out of it, and it felt excruciatingly painful. I tried to get out starting July 16, but I couldn’t because the executives of the union blocked me.”

It is revealed that in the process, a rift between union members and the leadership broke out. A union member expressed anger, saying, “We were fooled by the union executives. When we tried to get out after the union leader conceded defeat, a rumor circulated that the police would crack down on all of us. However, the executives made that up to avoid getting arrested.”

Another union member confessed, “I had been horrified that some extremists might set fire on the building and 2,000 people in it might die from it.” And some said they felt betrayed when they saw some leaders come out with union workers on July 21.

The leadership made up a surveillance squad and had them watch corners connected to the downstairs of the building. On July 20, early in the morning, a union worker who was coming downstairs showed up in the first floor lobby with his forehead bleeding after getting hit by the squad’s pipe.

Because of this, many union workers who were trying to escape there, came out using piping or elevators used for paper delivery.

The scene where all of the union members came out resembled a battlefield.

Chairs and office furniture used as barricades in the stairs were stacked to a man’s height and partitions were crushed like papers in offices. Damaged office furniture, leftovers of cups of noodles and cookies were scattered here and there, giving off a foul smell.

Inside the building, metal pipes were strewn about, and flame projectors made to block police entry and three or four large LP gas containers were placed around the entrance to stairs leading to the fourth and fifth floors.

After POSCO cut off electricity on July 18, it seemed that union workers used electric wires of exit sign lights as a power source for emergency lighting. Fluorescent lights on the ceilings were pulled out except for 10 of them and seemed to have been used as weapons. After water supply was cut on July 20, toilet bowls were full of excrements and stank badly.

A POSCO official announced that the whole building was damaged significantly, in addition to the fifth floor that was open to the public, and that it will take about a week more to repair the interior and return to normal operation after July 23 when the police field investigation is finished.

During the strike, union workers ate only cups of noodles and chocopies. As they lived only within the building, they lost an idea of day and night. They ate when they woke up and slept when sleepy. They said it was so cold at night that they couldn’t sleep without sleeping bags.

Union workers had enough food to eat, but they had the most difficult time going to the bathroom. In particular, smokers showed withdrawal symptoms when they ran out of cigarettes. A union member said he could have continued fighting if he had cigarettes.

Dong-Wook Kim creating@donga.com