Umbrella labor group holds rally against shipbuilder's layoff

SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- Thousands of labor activists staged a protest rally in downtown Seoul on Saturday, demanding that strike-bound Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Co. withdraw its decision to cut hundreds of jobs. Unionized employees at Hanjin Heavy, a mid-sized shipyard in the southern port city of Busan, had been waging a strike since December the company's decision to cut about 400 jobs as part of its restructuring drive. On Saturday, 2,500 members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), a major umbrella labor group, held a rally at the plaza in front of the Seoul city hall in support of Hanjin workers. Kim Jin-sook, a senior official from the KCTU's Busan office, has been staging a solo strike atop a 35-meter tower crane for near 200 days inside the shipyard in support of Hanjin workers. "Kim's ongoing rally at the risk of her life represents the situations of labor workers at this country," the KCTU said in a statement. "Hanjin Heavy Industries should withdraw its decision for job cuts and end labor repression." On June 27, the company's labor union decided to end a six-month full-scale strike, but some laid-off workers and supporter are in protest against the decision, saying that they cannot accept the settlement unless the company withdraws its decision to cut jobs. Union members have been in dispute with the management since June 2009, staging frequent labor stoppages that have caused the shipyard to use outside labor to avoid delivery delays. The company estimated it had lost some 16 billion won (US$15.2 million) since the strike started.