Samsung's apology

Conglomerates should guarantee workers' right to organize

"We are sorry for worrying and disappointing many people because of our labor-management problems," the Samsung Group said Wednesday in a statement issued jointly by Samsung Electronics and Samsung C&T Corp. The apology came one day after a Seoul court handed down jail terms to dozens of incumbent and former group executives for sabotaging labor union activities at the top conglomerate's affiliates.

In August, Lee Jaeyong, Samsung Electronics' vice chairman and de facto group leader, was also found guilty of bribery by the Supreme Court. This month, executives and employees at Samsung Biologics received guilty verdicts for destroying evidence regarding accounting fraud. It is sad to see the nation's most influential business group reduced to a corporate criminal by committing acts that are ill-sorted with its global reputation.

Samsung's labor-busting activities first surfaced in 2013 when Justice Party leader Rep. Sim Sangjung unveiled a 150-page document on the group's labor-management strategy. Samsung activated ad-hoc forces at the slightest sign of its employees forming a union, neutralizing it by monitoring and firing members and even committing pseudo-shutdowns of some units. No fewer than six years were needed to punish these "criminal" acts. once, the prosecution closed investigations for no good reason, and some police officers helped labor-busting activities after receiving bribes.

In the statement, Samsung also said, "Our views and perceptions of a labor union have fallen short of meeting the people's standards and society's expectations. We will move toward building a future-oriented and healthy labor-management culture." More than a century has passed since European countries legalized labor unions. Still, Korea's most globalized conglomerate says it is ready now to rethink its awareness of unionism. What will global consumers think of it? The apology can hardly be more superficial, leaving one in doubt as to whether or not Samsung truly repents for its mistakes.

The time has long passed for the corporate behemoth to discard its no-union policy and guarantee workers the right to organize. It should apologize to union members and accept unions as partners. The group's top managers must make every effort to make Samsung a totally different conglomerate regarding the employer-employee relationship.