[Yonhap Photo]
SEOUL -- Unionized workers at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) staged a four-hour strike against a deal to create a mega shipbuilder through the merger of two top shipyards in South Korea.
DSME workers downed tools for four hours Tuesday after lunch break. Some 2,000 workers marched in the streets after a rally at the shipyard on the southern island of Geoje. Union leaders at Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), the world's largest shipbuilder, have yet to disclose a timetable for their walkout.
Korea Development Bank (KDB), a state policy lender which has a controlling 55.7 percent stake in the Daewoo shipyard, plans to sign an official deal in March. KDB chairman Lee Dong-gull urged shipyard workers to stop their action, saying "struggle and strike" cannot keep jobs.
Lee ruled out any massive layoffs, but workers fear redundancies in overlapping business sectors. The two shipyards have already lost more than 30,000 jobs in a government-initiated campaign that began four years ago to restructure South Korea's shipbuilding industry.
Through a complicated process of equity conversion or transfer, the shipyards of HHI and DSME will be run under the same roof of a new corporation. Policymakers and KDB officials think the two shipbuilders can acquire the world's best technology and know-how, achieve economies of scale, and increase productivity by sharing technology, design, parts and services.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
