[Editorial] A receding unionism

The portion of unionized workers in the labor force has now halved from the 1989 peak of 198 in 1,000 workers. According to a recent report from the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the nation’s rate of unionization stands at 9.8 percent.

Unionism is weakening as blue-collar jobs are replaced by white-collar ones and the number of non-regular workers is on the rise. Even more damaging to unions is a perception widely shared among workers that they, or more accurately their leaders, do not serve members’ interests. Instead, many union leaders have been accused of seeking to serve their own.

They deserve such criticism, given that some of them reportedly lined their own pockets by exercising undue influence on corporate managers when it came to recruitment. Some others were involved in sex scandals and accused of embezzlement.

The politicization of the labor movement is driving workers away yet more. Union leaders, who have set their sights on election to public office, have organized anti-government protests. The promotion of welfare for union members and the improvement of their working conditions are often placed on the back burner.

Why does a labor activist need to get himself involved in the merging of all opposition forces and progressive civic groups into a new political party, as the leader of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions is doing? The leader is allegedly demanding that scores of the umbrella group’s members be nominated for the parliamentary elections in April. News reports say that he is aiming at having his members occupy as many as 20 seats of the 299-member National Assembly.

Corporate managers may be heartened by the decline in unionism. But unions have a legitimate role to play ― placing themselves as a counterweight to powerful corporate managers by serving the interests of their members.

It goes without saying that labor and management cannot maintain healthy relations if they fail to maintain checks and balances. As such, unions are called on to abandon politically motivated actions and go back to the basics to recruit workers as their members.

What they need to do is get the most out of their negotiations with managers for their members. The fall in unionism is a reminder that mobilizing unionists for political purposes is an anathema to the labor movement.