Woori Bank cuts wages..

With government pressure mounting, the Woori Bank has announced it will cut wages for its workers by 5% and new workers by 20%. The Korea Financial Industry Union (KFIU), which is based on the craft union model affiliated with the FKTU, apparently is one of the more "flexible" unions according to this article;

The Korea Federation of Banks, part of the industry-wide negotiations in the financial sector, unilaterally terminated talks with the KFIU on Aug 20 and gave its member banks authority to negotiate. Since its founding in 2000, the KFIU has been praised as the model of flexible Korean-style industry-wide negotiations, and had secured a 40-hour work week. This is the first year KFIU has been unsuccessful in negotiating an industry-wide wage deal.

Now why are labor-management cooperation models the best models for unions to work around again? The KFIU is a bit more willing to strike than most its fellow craft unions but its clear that the current situation in the ROK is not an attack on "violent labor" but all forms of labor organizing. And the KFIU is not the only union in the public sector under attack.

A labor expert says the industry-wide negotiating system has been completely shaken by the Management Association of the Health Industry which had broken off from their position as negotiating partner with Korea Health and Medical Workers’ Union. He is concerned that considerable tensions will be appearing in labor-management relations in response to continuous attempts to weaken the industry-wide negotiating system.