POSCO, the company that built South Korea's steel-industry success story, is known for a rare record: 58 consecutive years without a full-scale strike since its founding. That is not because it had no union. POSCO's union was first formed in 1988. Though it faded into irrelevance a few years later in the aftermath of a corruption scandal involving its officials, a labor-management council was set up in 1997 to serve as a bargaining channel in its place. From 2018, a Federation of Korean Trade Unions chapter at POSCO led wage and collective bargaining — yet a labor dispute never once brought its blast furnaces to a halt. Even Nippon Steel, which established a tradition of labor-management harmony, saw disputes back in the days of its predecessor, the old Yawata Iron & Steel. Against that, POSCO's dispute-free history stands out as an unusual case worldwide.
South Korea has no shortage of companies that, like POSCO, have written a "zero-strike" history. Yuhan Corporation, a pharmaceutical firm founded a century ago by the late Dr. Yoo Il-han — an independence activist, educator and businessman — is counted among the country's longest-running dispute-free workplaces. Lotte Chilsung Beverage and Dong-A Pharmaceutical (51 years without a strike) and Korea Zinc (38 years without a strike) have also run smoothly without any breakdown in labor relations. What these companies share is that management eased job insecurity through measures such as securing long-term employment, and the unions responded in kind by cooperating in stable management. This labor-management harmony became the foundation for each company's continued growth.
One of these uncommon dispute-free records reaches a crossroads on the 18th. On that day, the National Labor Relations Commission will rule on POSCO union's request for labor dispute mediation. POSCO's management and union held six rounds of main negotiations over this year's wage and collective agreement but failed to find common ground. The union has demanded a 7.1% increase in base pay, an incentive bonus of 600%, a holiday bonus of 200% and 50 shares of employee stock. This came after unions at major semiconductor companies won so-called "N% performance bonuses" from management, leaving POSCO and other leading firms facing steep union demands for higher wages and bonuses. Burning through a company's business performance in such a short-term feast of wages and bonuses is like cutting open the belly of the goose that lays the golden eggs. It is only regrettable that even POSCO's dispute-free tradition, admired around the world, is now being shaken.
