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COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
OF
Choi
In-gi, policy co-ordinator, KOSC, Korea
1. POLICY ON STREET VENDING OF SOUTH KOREAN GOVERNMENT AND MUNICIPALITIES
1-1.
1980s
After
the Korean War in 1950~1953 and the Industrialization by the Park Jung-Hee
Military Regime in 1960s~1970s, street vendors increased by geometric
progression. Refugees and peasants flooded into cities, find jobs and
became street vendors.
During
the 1980s, Korean street vendors suffered countless crackdowns by all
kinds of enforcement authorities such as ward officials, municipal
officials, police, crackdown parties, public and civilian services almost
all of them are from gangsters. Especially fighting against the national
crack down under the cloak of 1986 Seoul Asian Games, street vendors
recognized that we should organize ourselves and after the struggles we
began to organize the CSVFKs(City Street Vendors' Federations of Korea).
The CSVFKs had fought to gain rights to live against government's
suppression and participated in the protest of June and the Worker's Big
Struggle of July & August in 1987, which is the symbol of
democratization of Korea. And this protest enabled Korean street vendors
depend their own rights to live against the regime's suppression under
the cloak of 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. On 13th June 1988, the street
vendors came together and held "Convention to Protest the Street
Vendors' Right to Live". Thorough this convention, Korean street
vendors confirmed their solidarity with the national-democratic movements
of Korea and at last organized the national organization, NFSVK(National
Federation of Street Vendors of Korea, now 'KOSC') on October 1988.
Korean
street vendors' struggles forced the Seoul Metropolitan city government
to promote some measures: Free Flea Markets and Street Vending Boxes. But
the city government promoted these unilaterally. Only few numbers of
street vendors were able to trade and most of the Free Fleam Markets were
located in isolated sites and were unaccessible to citizens..
More than 20 years we've fought for the recognition that street vendors are also the subjects of Korean Society. But still, Korean government and municipalities prohibit street vending in that street vendors use public spaces for private purposes , the stalls invade citizens' rights to move on the street. So they do not recognize street vendors' rights to live, to organize ourselves, and to represent.
1-2. 1990s
In
1990s, South Korea becomes in prosperous condition. Informal economy look
like decreasing and the unemployment rate stick to 3%. After introducing
Local self government (autonomy) in 1990s, South Korean government did not
introduce policies on street vendors and did not try to estimate until
economic crisic in 1997. Rather, each local governments inherited
evicting policies of South Korean government before and employed
crackdown parties on street vendors mostly from gangsters just like Mafia
(Italy), Yakuza (Japan) and etc. Before then, only municipality
officers were able to evict street vendors. Against these crackdowns,
many street vendors fired themselves to die or were killed, most of whom
were disabled ones, just like Mr. Choi Jeong-hwan and Mr. Lee Deok-in in
1996, and Mr. Yoon Chang-yeong in 1999.
Only during late 1990s just after economic crisis in East Asia including South Korea when informal economy boomed after neo-liberal restructuring, the South Korean Government estimated street vendors to 1 million 850 thousands and fell back from promoting evictions.
1-3.
2000s
There
was no change in 2000s. The Seoul Metropolitan city government declared
that it will decrease 30% in 2003, to 35% in 2004 and to more than 40%
from total numbers of street vendors in Seoul city with no measures but
crackdowns. It also introduced the incentive system to encourage local
offices' crackdown on street vendors.
But,
the Seoul Metropolitan city government began to recognize that eviction
or crackdown is not a solution. Poor street vendors tries to trade on the
street again and again, because there is no counter-ways of earning for
families.
During
mass crackdowns or developments, the Seoul Metropolitan city government
tried to introduce the dialogue systems whether it is just for it , not
for street vendors. And also it visited Hongkong, Singapore, Japan,
Taiwan, Paris, and etc since 2000 and declared to introduce Committee for
Improvement of Street Vending on 27th February 2007.
Below
are some of the cases and lessons to us.
2. NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE FOR EMPOWERING DONGDAE-MUN FLEA MARKET
2-1.
BACKGROUND
The
dongdaemun flea market is the countermeasure where the Seoul metropolitan
city has guaranteed for street vendors to trade since the Restoration of
Cheonggye-chon (stream) launched 1st July 2003, where about 900 street
vendors are trading. He said that the city is going to study how to
change the market into park and fashion complex in 2007 and begin
redevelopment in 2008.
But,
after national election, Mr. Oh Se-hoon, newly elected mayor of the Seoul
metropolitan city, pronounced to demolish the Market and build the Park
and the Fashion complex. It means that;
-The
Seoul metropolitan city is breaking its promise to guarantee the street
vendors' rights of livelihoods and support for the market to be one of
the world well-known one.
-More
than 2000 street vendors, half of whom working in the Market and other
half around and near the Market, are going to lose their rights of
livelihoods.
The
policy on street vendors are going to be getting worse since the plan of
Seoul metropolitan city.
After facing mass struggles of street vendors and solidarity organizations, political pressure and media pressure, the Seoul Metropolitan city government promised to form bilateral dialogue committee between leaders of the street vendors and municipality representatives to discuss how to empower the Dongdae-mun Flea Market.
2-2.
CONSTITUENTS
Street
Vendors: 1 representative of central committee of the KOSC, 5
representatives of Dongdae-mun Flea Market
Municipality Officers: The Chief of Constructing & Planning of the Seoul Metropolitan city government and those who are responsible for treating street vendors in the city government.
2-3.
POSITION IN POLICY MAKING
This
committee is not formal. The representatives from the city government are
continuously saying that it cannot form formal dialogue committee with
illegal street vendors.
So, the decisions of the committee were unbelievable.
2-4.
BRIEF SCHEDULES BY NOW
-
February, 2003: Seoul City pronounced to mass crackdown on street
vendors.
-
March, 2003: Street vendors in Cheonggye-chon street formed emergency
struggle committee to achieve living rights.
-
July, 2003: Launch of the Restoration Construction of Cheonggye-chon
(stream).
-
November, 2003: Mass crackdown on street vendors in Cheonggye-chon street
by Seoul city government with 15,000 gangsters, riot police and municipal
officers.
-
December, 2003: Continuous negotiation and dramatic agreement to open
Dongdaemun stadium for street vendors to trade.
-
January, 2004: Opening of the Dongdae-mun Flea Market
- December, 2006: Formed the committee to empower the Market.
2-5.
PROSPECT
First
collective bargaining with the Seoul Metropolitan city government was
done from December 2003 to December 2006 on how to empowering the Flea
Market. There were no formal decision or formal documents of agreements.
And the representatives of the city government were changed. The city
government did not try to empower the Flea Market on Covering the Market
so that street vendors can trade whatever the weather is, Electronic
Facilities, Propaganda and etc, but declared unilaterally to demolish the
Market and make a Park and a Design Complex instead since 2004.
Second collective bargaining with with the Seoul Metropolitan city government has been done. Two meetings were held and dealt with the gap between the city government ("Demolishing the Market") and street vendors ("Achieving Rights to trade").
The
Committee, formed during second collective bargaining, is better than
before but have weakness. The city government is continuously saying that
it will talk with street vendors only when street vendors accept the
necessity of demolishing the Market and making a Park and a Design
Complex. And there is another problem. The city government is trying to
exclude the representative from the central committee of the KOSC. This
means that the city government is trying to isolate the headquater of the
KOSC and to say that it is talking only with street vendors in the
Market, not with the organizations of street vendors.
3. COMMITTEE FOR TOWER (BUILDING) OF STREET VENDORS IN GANGNAM-GU
3-1.
BACKGROUND
In 2003, Gangnam-gu office, Seoul, tried to evict 143 street vendors from Teheran Street, Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu for more than 10 months, but failed. After then, the office declared to build or to buy a tower building for street vendors who were trading on the Teheran Street. This was possible to consider, because the Gangnam-gu office is most rich among the offices in Seoul Metropolitan city. The Gangnam-gu office formed the Committee to Promoting Tower of Street Vendors in Gangnam-gu with officers, street vendors, experts and etc like below.
3-2.
CONSTITUENTS
14 (chairperson from vice-president of one the Universities, vice-chairpersons (1 from the office, 2 from elected members of the council of the office), 1 from the office, 1 teacher, 3 representatives from local NGO-Social movement organizations, 1 representative from merchants, 1 from the office, 2 from readers of the residents and 2 from representatives of street vendors.
3-3.
POSITION IN POLICY MAKING
The committee is remarkable, in that it is formal and always discuss with and decide through formal documents.
3-4.
BRIEF SCHEDULES BY NOW
-
February, 2004: Meeting with representatives of the KOSC and officers of
the office of Gangnam-gu
-
March, 2004: The office made a project on building office-own towers and
etc.
-
July, 2004: The committee was formed.
-
September, 2004: Research on "standards of street vendors, what to
sell, and etc"
- March, 2006: The office has tried to introduce change what to sell by street vendors in the Tower and to introduce deadline of trading, rental payments and etc. unilaterally.
3-5.
PROSPECT
The
office is planning to buy new building (4 billion 600 million Won= 460
million USD) and has already bought the Tower (10 billion 700 million Won=
1 billion 70 million USD) to move in street vendors from the streets. And
it is going to use the buildings to sell folk foods or agricultural
products.
But
unilateral trial to introduce rental payment and etc. by the office makes
no more possibility to discuss.
4.
GENERAL
There
had also been many collective bargainings and dialogues on street vending
between the municipalities and street vendors. But no more trial to enact
laws or policies. Most of the Committees were informal and temporary.
Recently,
the Seoul Metropolitan city government declared to introduce Committee
for Improvement of Street Vending on 27th February 2007. According to the
press release of the city government, the Committee is composed of
municipal officers, members of the office council, experts,
representatives of the residents, street vendors, other concerned persons
and etc.(Total 15 persons) And the office is saying that it will move
street vendors on the streets to the side streets and make Models of
"Street Vending Streets", where street vendors can start the
day's work only after 4 pm and undocumented, newly, and illegal street
vendors are targets of crackdowns to the end.
5.
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING STRATEGIES OF THE KOSC
First,
to negotiate, the municipalities should stop employing crackdown parties
or gangsters for crackdown on street vendors and abolish bad laws on
eviction. Many of times, Korean municipal officers and municipalities
broke their promises with street vendors. Who can trust in and how do we
know if the
municipalities are sincere at this stage.
Second,
if democratic decision-making systems and procedures are necessary. If the
negotiating committee is operating against our wills, we should make a
decision if we should participate or not.
Third,
the committee should not be biased towards government or municipalities.
It should guarantee as many as opinions of street vendors themselves. And
it should have power to make a decision and act.
Fourth,
if we make an agreement, municipalities or street vendors should carry
out it.
Finally
speaking, whenever the municipalities try not to carry out their
promises, we should organize struggles and act on the offensive to
achieve our demands.
6.
AFTERWARDS
It
looks as if there are some changes in the strategies and the policies of
the Seoul Metropolitan city government.