Greg, Your link to Jess' post on the Semi-board almost got me in trouble. I accidently posted a response over there and they aren't to crazy about Asian talk in general. There was a lot of time wasted about 7 months ago ranting about all the "Asia" posters. It was pretty funny. But in general, I could see their point and that's why I moved onto this thread. Anyway here's my response to Jess' post.
Jess writes: >>South Korea - This is a real area of concern at the moment due to the labor unrest there. If the workers take SK off of the IMF reform track, it will mean another severe downturn in that economy.<<
Jess,
About three weeks prior to the May 27th strike, There was great concern there would be some major fallout. Personally, I never figured there would be a complete meltdown in the Korean society, Indonesia style. Although, I did expect to see some bloodshed between the union and police. But none materialized and the whole episode was barely mentioned on our mainstream presses. And I couldn't figure out the take on it from a Korean's point of view. But it was almost a, "non-event?"
It appears the Union called for over 100,000 of it's members to take to the streets. The government said they estimated only 30,000 did. The work stoppages, which used to have a large impact, did nothing. It was almost as if management said, "Oh well, we needed to slow down production anyway." This is fairly significant in my opinion. In other words, their newly elected leader may have done a very good job in explaining the problems their society is facing.
It's hard to imagine the Korean society breaking down to the point where there is rioting and looting. There is/was just too large of a middle class and their leader seems to be making a big effort to explain the situation to the common man. It appeared to be pretty effective.
Now for those that don't remember, there is scheduled to be an even bigger strike on June 10th. There is nothing in the presses at this time forecasting gloom, doom, IMF problems, rioting, etc. Maybe there is a possibility there will be no more labor unrest? President Kim Dae-Jung may have done a good job of telling everyone they have to grin and bear it. I think if the June 10th strike is called off, or it's another non-event, then that just about closes the door on any labor problems for the next six months or so.
Just my opinion,
MikeM(From Florida) |
