The tyranny of the majority party
Published: 30 Nov. 2023, 20:10
Kim Dae-hwan
The author is a professor emeritus at Inha University and former minister of employment and labor.
A revision to the Labor Act was passed by the majority Democratic Party in the National Assembly on Nov. 9 after being dragged out for eight years. The controversial revision expands the scope of legal strikes, while making it difficult for companies to file compensation suits for damages caused by illegal strikes. In addition, the concept of employers was expanded to mandate their negotiations with subcontract unions. The governing People Power Party (PPP) attempted to block the passage of the revision, but to no avail due to its minority status. Helpless before the majority party, the PPP has no other choice than to rely on a presidential veto.
The presidential office has indicated that President Yoon Suk Yeol will veto the revised act, pointing out that it was immediately brought to the plenary session and railroaded without sufficient discussion in the legislature. Two days after the passage, the labor community held a large-scale rally to pressure the president to not veto the revision. Even the Federation of Korean Trade Unions expressed its intention to continue the struggle after reversing its decision to return to social dialogue.
The DP, which holds 168 seats in the 300-member legislature, is rushing to pass bills it couldn’t pass when it was the governing party. Using its majority status as a weapon, the DP even seeks to neutralize the president’s veto. One member of the party even vowed to win 200 seats in the upcoming parliamentary election to neutralize the presidential veto. The lawmaker’s remark sounds like defiance of the democratic order of our society.
I feel the need to summon the principle of majority vote. The principle based on the British Enlightenment thinker John Locke’s social contract theory is a convenient tool for a state to move forward as a community. The direction of a country should be determined by the consent of its members. But since it is practically impossible to reach a unanimous decision, the majority’s consent can lead the nation, the theory goes. Even the Enlightenment thinkers on the continent who criticized Locke’s social contract theory raised no objections to the majority rule.
The premise of a majority vote is a sufficient discussion among members of a society. A decision pushed by just an overwhelming majority may reflect a majority vote. But it is far from its basic principle. Even a decision by a majority faithful to the basic principle could prove wrong.
President Yoon must veto the revision not just because there has not been enough discussion but because it goes against the basic principles of modern democracy. Exponentially expanding unions’ rights to bargain and strike while nearly denying employers’ rights to file a compensation suit not only goes against the principle of freedom and equality but directly contradicts our Constitution. Compelling companies to negotiate even with subcontractors — without obligation by the law in the company-level union system — is against the principle of freedom and equality, as well as the principle of equal labor and management. I recommend that the president clearly points to the aberration as the reason for a veto.
In a modern democratic society, the principle of freedom and equality is expressed as a free contract, which is the result of the “transition from class to contract.” Labor-management relations also shifted from class-based ones to contract-based ones. In Korea, unions are no longer the socially weak. It is fair for the president to reject the tyranny of the majority party to give biased power and immunity to the unions beyond the scope of contracts due to its adherence to the class theory.
Following the unilateral passage of the Grain Management Act and the Nurses Act, the DP passed the revisions to the Labor Act and the Broadcast Act. That is a mass bullying by the majority to pressure the president not to exercise a veto. At the same time, it is a tactic to put a veto frame on the president. It is practically a black comedy if the majority party begs for two-thirds of the 300 seats in the next parliamentary election to neutralize a presidential veto.
I hope the labor community returns to the basics. Rights are proportionate to responsibility. If the umbrella union really wants to improve the treatment of subcontract workers, it must break away from its deep-seated selfishness and reinvent the union by incorporating subcontractors to demonstrate the genuine spirit of solidarity. That is the way forward for the labor sector.
Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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