Make cooperative efforts to make multiple union system a success

SEOUL, June 7 (Yonhap) -- Multiple unions will be allowed in each workplace from July 1, and the labor and industry communities are busy preparing for the new system, which will be implemented 13 years after labor, management and political parties agreed on the system. Related parties agreed on the system in accordance with a recommendation from the International Labor Organization, but the implementation has been delayed due to the enormous impact the system is expected to have on the national economy.
The prospects for the new system, however, are not very bright since the labor circle is discontent over the regulation that it is required to use a single negotiation channel when bargaining with employers.
The labor circle has persistently demanded the removal of the requirement to set up a single body representing multiple unions, saying that it will alienate newly created unions or unions with small memberships.
The government and the management circle have different thoughts on the demand. If the negotiation channel is not unified, management could be tied to negotiations with diversified unions throughout the year, which would make it difficult to effectively manage companies.
The labor circle has declared an all-out struggle to invalidate the unified negotiation channel and the "time-off" system, which allows employers to pay full-time union officials while also calling for the reduction of the number of paid union officials. The labor organizations have been pressuring political parties to amend the labor union law again.
In the legislature, opposition parties have initiated a bill to revise the labor union law, and some members of the ruling Grand National Party have raised a voice for the revision of the law.
The government, meanwhile, is adamant that a revision of the labor union law to change a previous revision made on Jan. 1, 2010 is impossible even before the multiple union system is implemented. The business circle also insists that the opposition parties and labor organizations should immediately stop their attempts to revise the labor union law.
What is important for the two sides under the situation is to seek to communicate by carefully considering each other's position.
The introduction of the multiple union system is regarded as an effort to advance labor-management relations to the international level. Some say it will contribute to socially vulnerable classes, such as non-regular workers, in exercising their right to unite. A negative assessment of the system is that it would aggravate labor-management relations by instigating labor-labor conflicts centered around who will be the representatives in negotiations with management.
Labor, management and government members should make concerted efforts and cooperate to help the new system to take healthy roots in our society. Loopholes of the system, which will be exposed after its implementation, should be quickly mended. To make the system a success, all the parties concerned should refrain from engaging in extreme confrontation and should instead work toward cooperation for coexistence and common prosperity.