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폭동평택

Police attack car plant strikers

www.theage.com.au

Pyeongtaek, South Korea

August 6, 2009

SOUTH Korean police commandos have mounted a helicopter raid to end a sit-in by strikers at a troubled car plant.

Braving a hail of missiles and firebombs, police rappelled from helicopters on to the roof of the paint workshop at Ssangyong Motor, the last building still occupied by unionists fighting mass lay-offs at the debt-stricken company.

Other officers inside three containers lifted by giant cranes landed on a roof adjoining the workshop. Two helicopters dropped tear gas on the strikers.

Two workers fell from a three-storey rooftop while trying to stop the commandos from landing. Yonhap news agency reported they were injured but not critically.

More than 500 unionists, armed with steel pipes and huge slingshots firing nuts and bolts, have been holed up inside the workshop.

They have occupied the main factory for more than 70 days, halting production lines at a mushrooming cost that the company said had exceeded 300 billion won ($A292 million).

Thousands of riot police had earlier hesitated to mount a full-scale raid because the plant is packed with flammable materials.

YTN television said firefighters were trying to put out small blazes at the plant, 70 kilometres south of Seoul.

Witnesses said black smoke billowed over the factory. Journalists were kept well back from the scene.

At least 27 police officers and non-union workers at Ssangyong were hurt during clashes on Tuesday.

In February, Ssangyong won court protection from creditors as China’s Shanghai Automotive Industry gave up management control.

Court-appointed managers have since tried to turn the company around through job cuts and cost savings. The program calls for the removal of 2646 workers, or 36 per cent of the workforce.

About 1670 of these have taken voluntary redundancy but others began an occupation of the plant on May 21.

The union had warned that it ‘‘will fight to the death should police forcefully break up the occupation’’.

AFP

노동자가 모르모트? ‘신무기 실험장’ 된 평택공장

테이저건 이어 폭동진압용 ‘다목적발사기’ 쏴…과잉진압 논란

경찰 ‘위험한 진압장비’ 사용

경찰이 5일 경기도 평택시 쌍용자동차 평택공장 농성 진압 과정에서 폭동 진압 장비인 ‘다목적발사기’와 안전성 논란이 끊이지 않은 테이저건을 사용해 ‘과잉 진압’ 논란을 빚고 있다. 경찰은 이전에도 테이저건 및 발암 추정물질 디클로로메탄이 함유된 최루액을 사용해 인권 침해라는 비판을 불러일으킨 바 있다.

경찰은 이날 오전 8~9시께 쌍용자동차 조립3·4공장을 장악하고 도장1공장으로 진입하는 과정에서 다목적발사기를 사용했다. 이 발사기에서 발사된 탄환에 귀 쪽을 맞은 노조원 소아무개(35)씨는 스무 바늘을 꿰매는 부상을 당해 병원에 입원중이다. 소씨는 “총알을 맞은 뒤 3~4분 정도 정신을 잃었다”고 말했다.

다목적발사기는 전체 길이 46.3㎝, 구경 4㎝, 무게 2.6㎏으로, 경찰 특공대가 다중 폭동 진압용으로 사용하는 장비다. 경찰청 관계자는 “다목적발사기로 스펀지탄, 고무탄, 가스탄, 조명탄 등 네 종류의 탄환을 사용할 수 있다”며 “이날 사용한 탄환은 압축스펀지탄”이라고 밝혔다. 경찰은 이날 스펀지탄 30여발을 쏜 것으로 알려졌다.

‘다목적발사기 사용이 지나친 것 아니냐’는 지적과 관련해, 조현오 경기지방경찰청장은 이날 오후 기자회견에서 “폭동 진압용으로 사용하는 걸로 알고 있으며, 시위세력을 무력화시키기 위해 사용할 수 있지 않으냐”고 말했다.

Commandos tackle S Korea strikers

5 août 2009

South Korean police commandos have dropped from helicopters to try to end a factory sit-in by sacked workers demanding to keep their jobs.

More than 500 workers have occupied the main car plant of Ssangyong Motors for more than 10 weeks.

For a second day, police battled laid-off workers armed with metal rods and throwing projectiles.

Ssangyong is under court-approved bankruptcy protection and is trying to cut thousands of jobs to stay afloat.

Police said about 50 people were injured in Wednesday’s clashes.

The commandos dropped by rope from helicopters while others were lowered in a shipping container onto the roof of one of the paint shops.

Other police commandos charged the building with ladders.

Fire risk

The police have now cleared most of the factory at Pyeongtaek, 70km (43 miles) south of Seoul, but a hard core of workers remains in one of the paint shops at the complex, officials said.

Police have been worried about sparking a fire at the paint shops, where highly-flammable materials are stored.

Ssangyong has laid-off more than 2,600 workers, about one-third of its labour force. About 1,600 have accepted voluntary redundancy but the others decided to occupy the plant.

Negotiations to end the occupation broke off on Sunday, with the union representing workers rejecting a management proposal to reduce the number of layoffs.

The union insists that no workers should be dismissed.

La police sud-coréenne fait des dizaines de blessés

6 août 2009

Des dizaines de personnes ont été blessées mercredi dans l’assaut donné par la police sud-coréenne à l’usine automobile Ssangyong située dans la ville de Pyeongtaek. Des blessés figurent aussi bien dans les rangs des travailleurs grévistes que des policiers. Deux travailleurs sont notamment tombés du toit de l’usine et
seraient gravement blessés.

Près de 4.000 policiers ont pénétré dans l’usine occupée par quelque 550 travailleurs grévistes depuis le mois de mai.

Les forces de l’ordre sud-coréennes ont eu recours à un hélicoptère et à du gaz lacrymogène. Quant aux travailleurs, qui s’étaient barricadés dans l’usine, ils ont notamment mis le feu à des pneus. Selon des médias locaux, les alentours du site ont été transformés en champ de bataille.

Ssangyong est le plus petit des cinq constructeurs automobiles sud-coréens. Le constructeur a annoncé en avril dernier le licenciement d’un tiers de son personnel, soit quelque 2.650 travailleurs. Ceux-ci occupaient depuis la fin mai l’usine de Pyeongtaek en guise de protestation contre la restructuration. (belga)

Police begin offensive to retake Ssangyong plant

August 05, 2009

Police yesterday launched a full-scale operation to gain access to Ssangyong Motor’s Pyeongtaek car paint factory, where over 500 laid-off workers have been staging a 75-day sit-in. At least 23 people were reported injured during the skirmish.

At 9:50 a.m. police stationed outside the plant began moving in. Two police helicopters were also mobilized and shot liquid tear gas on the factory roof.

Though workers fought back using slingshots, Molotov cocktails and burning tires, police managed to secure the roof of another building connected to the car paint factory an hour later. They also seized roads adjacent to the factory, indicating that a larger raid was imminent. Police also used forklifts to remove 70 metal pallets used as barricades on the west side of the factory.
“Police will secure every building in the plant today, except for the car paint factory which has been occupied by the striking workers,” a senior police official at the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency told reporters. “We will then decide when to storm the factory to force eviction.”

After the lingering negotiations between the automaker’s management and its labor union collapsed without reaching substantial agreement on Sunday, 115 striking workers quit their occupation and headed home, according to police. Because the factory contains flammable material, authorities dispatched fire engines and firefighters to the scene.

Black fumes were seen at several spots near the paint factory as clashes between police and workers continued. Management and striking workers accused each other of starting the fire. Some 500 non-striking workers appeared at the main gate of the factory as police began operations and dismantled nine tents that were set up by striking workers’ families and opposition parties. Minor clashes were reported.

Meanwhile, creditors of Ssangyong Motor’s subcontractors said yesterday that they will ask a court to send the automaker into bankruptcy today as scheduled.

They will also file compensation suits against management and striking workers to collect strike damages of 10 billion won ($8.1 million).

“We are aware of Ssangyong’s dire situation, but the situation among the subcontractors is also serious,” said Choi Byeong-whoon, a senior member of the Ssangyong subcontractor creditor group.

Ssangyong owes the subcontractors about 300 billion won, the largest figure among the company’s creditors. Most of the automaker’s 600 subcontractors are closed temporarily due to the shutdown of auto production caused by the occupation.

Police Storming Ssangyong Plant

08-04-2009

Black smoke poured from Ssangyong Motor plant Tuesday morning as special police units stormed into one of three buildings dismissed workers have been occupying for more than two months.

Dozens of officers jumped onto the building’s rooftop at 10:40 a.m. from an aerial ladder as police helicopters sprayed liquid teargas. The workers resisted by throwing petrol bombs and blocks, and using slingshots.

At least 23 people were injured during the clash and taken to hospital, police said.

After successfully landing on the rooftop, the police squad was set to move into the plant, which is packed with flammable material.

Police on the ground removed cars and barricades that have prevented riot police from moving forward, a move signaling that a crackdown on protesters was imminent.

About 300 riot police armed with batons and plastic shields had approached to within five meters of the occupied building.

« Today we will retake as much of the factory as possible, » a police officer said at the scene. « But we will be cautious in moving inside the buildings due to strong resistance from the occupiers. »

The prosecution said it will be tough against the workers for their illegal occupation of the plant.

The operation came two days after last-ditch talks between management and laid-off workers broke down, and one day before creditors of the firm were to submit a request for the liquidation of the carmaker which has a 2-percent domestic market share.

Creditors said they have no choice but to seek liquidation unless the plant was normalized by 4 p.m. today.

« Unless police kick all protesters out of the facility by that time, we will submit the request to the Seoul Central District Court, » Choi Myung-hoon, the representative of the creditors, told The Korea Times.

Police estimate some 550 laid-off Ssangyong workers remain inside the four-story paint shop.

The building is reportedly no better than a « refugee camp, » as supplies of water, food and electricity were cut last week.

pss@koreatimes.co.kr

~ par Alain Bertho sur 6 août 2009.

Publié dans émeutes, 폭동, riots