Six Years of Fighting Against Samsung Turns Father Into Labor Advocate: An Interview With Hwang Sang-ki

Hwang Sang-ki, 58 years old, began to take on Samsung six years ago, after losing her daughter Yumi to occupationally caused leukemia at the world’s largest tech company.

Six years ago, on March 6, 2007, Hwang Yumi died in her father’s taxi on her way to hospital. Yumi was only 23 years old. It was five years after she began to work as an operator at Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. in the city of Suwan. And it was 20 months after she was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. The death of a daughter changed the life of her father. Since her death, Hwang Sang-ki, a taxi driver of modest means, did everything he could to get the tragic story of her daughter out in a country where the world’s largest semiconductor maker’s political and economic tentacles reach to every corner. Samsung attempted to suppress the father’s voice with hush money and blackmail.

His tenacity came to fruition in November 2007, when a group of public health and labor activists formed SHARPS. The independent news website Pressian interviewed Hwang on March 6 to mark the sixth anniversary of Yumi’s death. The following is a full English translation, with minor modifications to better suit English readers:

Six years after losing his daughter Hwang Yumi to Leukemia, Hwang Sang-ki still splits his time between Seoul and his hometown Sokcho. In the past six years, no rally against Samsung and its occupational disease cluster has taken place without his presence. “I am making a living driving a taxi in Sokcho. Splitting time between the two cities is really hectic,” Hwang told the reporter.

March 6th marks the sixth anniversary of Yumi’s death. The entire six years also represented the time he spent fighting to get his daughter’s death legally recognized as the result of occupational hazards. It took six years after her death–and four years after his court petition to win a lower court ruling that workers compensation for Yumi’s death should be granted—something Samsung has been denying and the Korea Workers Compensation & Welfare Service (KCOMWEL), the regulatory body, had been fighting.  This is not the end of the story. Hwang may spend more years in court as high court, and Supreme Court, proceedings are still ahead of him.

Blank Letter of Resignation    

It was June 2005 when Yumi was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. She was 21 years old. She developed the condition though there was no family history of the rare disease. It had been only 20 months after she began to work as an operator at the Kihung plant of Samsung.

In December 2005 when Yumi’s condition took a brief favorable turn after bone marrow transplants, Hwang learned of words that 30-year-old Yi Sook-young, a Samsung employee who worked alongside Yumi, died of leukemia. That confirmed his belief that her daughter’s disease was the result of occupational hazards. It was hardly a coincidence that the two co-workers developed the rare type of leukemia, which was found in only 4.2 out of the 100,000 people aged 20 to 29 nationally. Instead of approving her disease as an industrial accident, Samsung demanded Yumi’s resignation.

“Managers visited me at home in Sokcho.  They said Yumi must resign immediately because her sick leave could no longer be extended. They asked me if I had anything to ask of the employer before she resigns. I requested they petition for workers compensation for her so Yumi could get medical treatment without interruption. Then, a manager asked me, ‘Do you believe you can take on Samsung and defeat us?” I answered, ‘I can’t.”

“They told me to ask for something other than workers compensation. I asked them to pay for Yumi’s treatment. The manager demanded Yumi’s immediate resignation in exchange for KRW 50 million (U$4,610) They gave me a folded blank paper on which to put Yumi’s full name and national ID number. That became her letter of resignation”

In mid-November 2006, after the blank “letter of resignation”, Yumi’s condition grew worse.  The manager who picked up the resignation letter visited Hwang again, now with the KRW 50 million. He said the KRW 50 million was all he could offer and demanded that Hwang accept it.

Hwang began to look for former Samsung employees who had developed leukemia. By word of mouth, he found six victims. Meanwhile, Samsung maintained that Yumi, having resigned, had nothing with the company any longer.

“In January 2007, four human resources managers visited me at home again. I demanded the reason why they insisted Yumi was not an industrial accident victim—although she and six others developed the disease. Then, they said the company does not use chemicals or leukemia-causing materials. They demanded the reason why I was trying to frame Samsung with lies. The talk discontinued as the four managers cornered me. And Yumi was dying. They did not ask anything about her condition. I was so sad and broke down into tears.”

Seizing Newspapers

On March 6, 2007, Yumi died. Hwang in vain resorted to elected officials, broadcasters–and indeed every possible place and people he could think of– regarding the working conditions that led to Yumi’s death. Finally, in June 2007, Uri Suwon, a small local newspaper, ran a report on Yumi’s death based on the journal she kept while working at her plant. In the same month, aided by labor advocacy groups, Hwang filed a petition with KCOMWEL for workers compensation. It was not an easy process.

“When I handed out copies of the newspaper at the gate of the plant, security guards took them away from the workers as they entered the factory.  I put the copies in the newsstands at the Suwon train stations.  Soon, well-built plainclothes men collected them all.”

On Sept. 1, 2007, Samsung conducted an epidemiologic probe of the plant. Hwang said of the probe as a sham. The probe should have been conducted, unannounced. However, the company knew the schedule and had enough time to prepare for it. “My daughter said she worked in a poorly ventilated room that was not compartmentalized. By the time they conducted the investigation, the factory was well-ventilated and cool, and separate areas were installed,” said Hwang.

After the epidemiologic investigation, a Samsung manager promised him KRW 1 billion (U$922,000) on the condition that he would stop contacting labor advocacy groups and publicly talking about the death of her daughter.

“I believed they attempted to silence me with money. Samsung believed that I would stop taking issue with it after being paid. However, I wouldn’t. more and more victims began to come out. I already knew there were six more at least. I believe that there must be no more victims.”

Short Victory After Long Fight

After Hwang’s efforts, on Nov. 11, 2007, about 20 labor and civic groups banded together and formed SHARPS. More victims came out. In May 2009, two years after receiving the petition, KCOMWEL turned it down.

In Jan. 2010, Hwang and four other Samsung workers who developed leukemia and other types of blood disease joined forces to bring an administrative lawsuit against KCOMWEL for denying their earlier petitions. Samsung, named as a party liable to the defendant in the lawsuit, hired six lawyers from big law firms to argue the case. On June 23, 2011, the court ruled in favor of Yumi and two other victims. It took yet another four years to score a legal victory after KCOMWEL’s rejections.

Boosted by Hwang’s triumph, more victims came forward. According to SHARPS, as of date, 200 workers once employed in the electronics industry have stepped forward.  The organization had profiled 80 deceased workers.

“Samsung lied. When five victims came out, Samsung did not deny culpability. When that number came six, Samsung did not deny it either. An organization was formed. Two more came out, increasing the number to eight.  Samsung admitted that many. More came out. Samsung merely admitted as many.”

Feb. 2011, the ministry of employment and labor finally confirmed that carcinogenic materials such as benzene, formaldehyde, and arsenic trioxide, as well as ionizing radiation, were in use at Samsung and other semiconductor makers. In April and December of the same year, two former Samsung employees’ petitions for workers compensation claims were granted by KCOMWEL.  The two women respectively suffered breast cancer and aplastic anemia. In addition to Hwang’s victory, the two female workers’ cases were one of the greatest accomplishments by SHARPS.

Samsung By Numbers

Six years after the death of Hwang Yumi, this blog has put together some numbers to better show what takes for SHARPS and its supporters to take on Samsung:

1,934  

The number of workplace safety violations turned up South Korea’s ministry of employment and labor in a probe that followed the fatal chemical leaks of Jan. 28-29.

250,000,000

KRW250 million, or $2.3 million, was the amount of penalties levied on Samsung by the ministry over the chemical leaks that killed one contract workers and injured four others.

1

The Samsung Suwon plant, where the fatal leaks took place, had only one full-time safety officer.

2014

According to the March 3, 2013 The Financial Times, Samsung denies all claims of child labor in China and other illegal labor practices after being sued by three French human rights groups. The suit accuses Samsung of deceiving consumers by violating its own promises on ethical working conditions and of using child labor. Samsung admitted breaches of certain regulations as its Chinese contractors such as excessive working hours. The company promised to end this practice by the end of 2014.

181

The number of workers who SHAPRS has profiled that have developed various types of blood disorder while employed at Samsung or its subsidiaries as of Feb. 2013.

69

Out of the 181 injured workers, 69 have died as of Feb. 2013. 

19

The age of the youngest victim is 19. The female worker, known by her last name Choi outside SHARPS because her family does not want her identity released, died of a blood disorder in 1995, a year after she began to work at the Kihung plant.

46

The age of the oldest victim is 46. Yun Jae-hyon, a male, began to work at Samsung’s LCD plant in 1989 and died of brain tumors in 2007.

35/34

In total, 35 female and 34 male victims have died.

Put Human Life Above Money

Hwang’s tiny victory came after many twists and turns. “When I first attempted to get the story of my daughter out, journalists and lawmakers looked the other way. Many friends and relatives of mine attempted to stop me, saying I could not take on Samsung,” said the 58-year-old taxi driver, “and that made me feel really lonely.”  He got physically hurt by Samsung, too. When he mounted pickets and protests, the company’s security guards often yanked him off the grounds, roughly.

I was assaulted during the funeral procession for Lee yun-jeng, who died in May 2012 of brain tumors after six years with Samsung. When we attempt to hold a rally at Samsung’s corporate headquarters, security guards did not allow us to pass.  Tens of them surrounded me. They tripped me and threw me on the ground.  I could not walk normally for months.  Samsung did not even allow us to commiserate over the unjust death of its own employee in front of its headquarters.  Families of other victims share the same pain.”

He then criticized the ministry of employment and labor and KCOMWEL—the government agencies purported to protect workers that he believes instead shield the employer from employees’ challenges.

“When I petitioned for workers compensation, I said Yumi had worked on line 3 of bay 3. A KCOMWEL clerk said Yu worked only for three months putting stickers on products in bay 3, based on the company’s statement. I said Samsung was lying. Then the clerk abruptly got angry and yelled at me. He said Samsung would not lie just because a few employees had died.”

“The epidemiologic probe by the ministry of employment and labor was no different. It investigated less than 10 percent of about 800-900 chemicals used in chip making. Samsung refused to disclose other chemicals, citing trade secrets, and the government did not pursue further. Trade secrets must not be above the right to health. High-tech exists to better human life, so do trade secrets and money. However, what Samsung and KCOMWEL say the right to business is above human life.”

What is on his mind six years after he began to fight an undefeatable Samsung?

“I had been making a living driving a cab for more than 30 years before Yumi became ill. Even back then, I believed that workers were poorly treated by the government.  Nevertheless, I had never fought back.  I met many people when I petitioned for workers compensation. I came to know that there were many workers who were unfairly treated.  Workers need to become better off, and society needs to be safer. Those in power impose too heavy a burden on the workers.”

Hwang said workers compensation is a social safety net for those injured in industrial accidents. “Epidemiologic probes should be conducted, unannounced. Corporations should disclose which chemicals they use. Regulations should be revised so corporations, not workers who petition for insurance claims, need to prove the causality between working conditions and the disease that they cause. Speaking of the recent fatal chemical leaks at Samsung, he said, “The government sides with corporations. Corporations cover things up. These incidents are bound to repeat.”

“I promised myself that I would reveal what had caused her disease. Getting her condition acknowledged as an industrial accident was the first thing to do. Now that her case is approved as an accident by a lower court, the causes of other victims’ illnesses need disclosing.  I kept my promise to her, but not completely yet.”

“The issue of occupational disease is not limited to Samsung. [Hazardous] chemicals are used at automobile, shipbuilding and semiconductor factories, but they are poorly managed. There are many workers who developed cancer or other illnesses. To protect them institutionally, regulatory criteria for occupational diseases must be eased. Yumi’s memorial day is getting closer.  I will fight on until no workers become ill because of their jobs, and until they will be fully compensated for their illnesses once they become ill.”

Samsung often responds to non-violent protests with excessive force. The picture was taken on March 9,. 2009 when SHARPS members demanded a meeting with Samsung executives.  Mr. Hwang (on the right in the picture) was thrown on to the floor.

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Samsung Receives Slap On The Wrist For Fatal Chemical Leaks

<On Feb. 27, 2013, the South Korean police released CCTV footage of hydrofluoric acid gas leaks at Samsung.  The leaks, caused on Jan. 27-28 by gaskets that were in use beyond replacement time, killed one worker and injured four. >

The chronic safety negligence that led to chemical leaks, and ensuing cover-ups of the incidents that resulted in one death and four injuries, were not sufficiently serious for the South Korean government to pursue criminal charges against top executives at Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

On Feb. 27, the South Korean police said it would criminally charge seven individuals for negligence in the hydrofluoric acid leaks of Jan. 28-29 at a Samsung chip plant in Hwaseong, about 70 kilometers south of Seoul.

Among the seven individuals, a 34 years old contract worker identified by his last name of Park, died of exposure to the leaks. The other six include three employees of STI, Samsung’s contractor, and three mid-level managers of Samsung.

The negligence charges were indeed a slap on the wrist, given that the world’s largest semiconductor maker has been not only routinely violating safety regulations but also been aggressively covering up its run-ins with the law.

Following are new findings collected from the police’s announcement and media reports:

New Fact 1. Samsung Used Key Components Past Expiration Dates

The police pointed to the neglected seals and old gaskets of the gas tank as reasons for the first leak on Jan. 28. The gaskets had been used and reused past their scheduled replacement dates.

The second leak was preventable, according to the police, had new seals between the tank and the pipe been completed by the workers.

A simulation test by the police put the amount of leakages at a maximum of seven liters per hour during the first leak on Jan. 28. The government could not estimate the volume of the second leak for lack of data; a gauge collecting data of gas flows had been out of order.

Poorly maintained equipment and rushed repairs are commonplace at Samsung. Many occupational disease victims profiled by SHARPS said machines in a state of disrepair posed constant hazards.

New Fact 2. Samsung Released Fatal Gas Out Of Its Factory

The police confirmed earlier unattributed press reports that on Jan. 28, around 6:00am, Samsung and STI workers used huge ventilation fans to remove hydrofluoric acid leaks from the central chemical supply system, or the CCSS, where leaks took place.

Samsung has to date denied the fatal gas had filtrated through the CCSS.  A group of environmental volunteers found residue of hydrofluoric acid in the soil around the Hwaseong plant, which is ringed by housing compounds.

New Fact 3. Samsung Effectively Turned Off Sensor Alarm

According to the police, though the sensor in the CCSS was fully functional during the leaks, the volume of its alarm was reduced to inaudible levels. Samsung allowed STI employees to replace the corroded gaskets on Jan. 27 at 2:11pm, about four hours after the contract workers requested a replacement from a Samsung supervisor.

It wasn’t until 6:08pm, about 16 hours after the leak, when a Samsung security officer showed up at the CCSS.

On March 15, a multi-agency taskforce will announce its findings.

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Samsung Continues to Cover Up Fatal Chemical Leaks With More Lies

 

About 26 hours after the first leak on Jan. 27, South Korean police began to investigate the site of Samsung’s Hwaseong plan where yet-undetermined amounts of hydrofluoric acid gas were released.

Neighboring elementary schools have postponed new semesters in fear of fallout from recent chemical leaks at a nearby Samsung plant.  The surrounding community is unsettled with anger and frustration.  However, nine days after leaks of hydrofluoric acid gas that killed one worker and injured four at its plant south of Seoul, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. continues to cover up the fatal incidents with more lies.  The following is a quick rundown of new facts that the world’s largest chipmaker had been covering up since this blog’s last post:

Fact 1

Samsung said of the Jan. 27-28 leaks as the first-of-its-kind incident.  However, it was not the first time that hydrofluoric acid gas, a virulent and deadly impurity remover for semiconductor wafers, has leaked at the Hwaseong plant.  The conservative Chosun Il bo quoted a study conducted in 2011 by Dr. Suh Byung-seong, of Sungkyunkwan University and Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, and reported that a 37-year-old male worker was treated in Sept. 2010 after exposures to the acid gas. 

Prof. Suh’s study did not name Samsung’s Hwaseong plant as the site of the leak and instead described it as a semiconductor plant with 20,000 employees.  However, Samsung confirmed the incident, saying “a contract worker was exposed to the leak [three years ago].”  This is particularly outrageous because while Samsung concealed the leak from authorities in breach of law, a professor who teaches at a university and a hospital that Samsung owns, could still conduct a study of the victim. 

Fact 2

Initial press reports put the volume of the January 28-29 leaks at ten liters.  Later, Samsung said it was about two or three liters.  However, an autopsy of the 34-year-old victim known by his last name Hwang turned up a blister larger than one centimeter in the respiratory path, suggesting that the amounts of the leaks exceeded the capacity of his gasmask’s filter.   The exact volume of the leaks has yet to be determined.

Fact 3

Samsung ordered the four workers who were dispatched to the leak from contractor STI Service to patch up the leaks with absorption pads and plastic bags although the workers reported that the melted gasket needed immediate replacement, according to an opposition lawmaker who interviewed one of the four workers. 

It was about 11:30pm, about nine hours after the first leak, when Samsung management agreed to the replacement. Hwang, who ultimately died due to his exposure to the leak, had to work on the leak during his first hours on the site without wearing a protective suit because Samsung had urged him to stop the leak immediately so production would not be interrupted. 

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Samsung Seen Covering Up Fatal Gas Leaks At Its Chip Plant

A bird eye view of Samsung’s Hwaseong plant where hydrofluoric-acid leaks Jan. 28 killed one worker and injured four others. Samsung did not contact authorities for 26 hours after the chemical leaks although the plant is ringed largely with residential homes.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. failed to contact authorities for 26 hours after two separate leaks of hydrofluoric acid gas killed one contractor and injured four others at its chip plant, about 70 kilometers south of Seoul, in Jan. 27-28.

Fatal Leaks

On Jan. 27, about at 1:00pm local time, a 500-liter (132 gallon) tank at Samsung’s Hwaseong, Gyeonggi-do plant began to leak diluted hydrofluoric acid gas through a melted gasket, the independent newspaper Hankyoreh reported.  The tank reportedly leaked again at 5am the following day.  A total of ten liters of the acidic gas leaked.

Hydrofluoric acid, used to remove impurities from chip wafers, is a potentially dangerous industrial-grade substance that can immediately and permanently damage lungs and corneas.

At 11pm, Samsung called four workers of maintenance firm STI to fix leak.  The world’s largest chipmaker did not report the leaks until 3pm, about an hour after an STI worker died from exposure to the acid and four others were hospitalized for chest pain and rashes.

Go Unreported And Unprotected

Contrary to earlier press reports claiming that the dead worker did not have any protective gear save a mask, the 34 years old, identified by his last name, Park, wore a protective suit after inspecting the leak, according to a Yonhap News report.   The other four’s protective suits proved inadequate, as they all were exposed to the gas and were hospitalized.  Over the course of about nine hours, the five contractors struggled to stop the leaks with plastic bags, and to remove the melted gasket.

Exemption

Samsung did not immediately report the leak to authorities, in breach of regulations.  However, the local government of the Gyeonggi-do province has exempted the company from a higher version of safety inspections. On a regular round of inspections of local factories less than three months ago, the government failed to inspect the gasket that leaked Jan. 27, Newsis News reported.

Risky Outsourcing

The leak accident revealed that Samsung has been outsourcing safety management to contractors, despite being heavily dependent on hazardous materials in chip production.   It also showed contract workers are more likely to be exposed to hazardous conditions.  Last year, after a series of revelations of excessive overtime and irregularities at its Chinese contractors, Samsung promised to improve working conditions across its supply chain.

However, harsh working conditions are not limited to its overseas contractors.   In October 2012, SHARPS profiled Kim Ki-cheol, 27 years old, who was diagnosed with acute leukemia after having worked as a contract wafer operator at the Hwaseong plant since 2006.

On SHARPS

As of March 2012, SHARPS has profiled 155 workers who contracted various forms of leukemia, multiple sclerosis, and aplastic anemia after employment in the electronics industry in South Korea.   As of June 2, 2012, 63 of the 155 have died.  The majority of the workers, 138, were employed at Samsung Electronics, Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Samsung SDS—the three electronics affiliates of the Samsung Group, the country’s largest conglomerate.  Among the 63 deaths were 56 Samsung employees.

Correction 1: The original version of this story said Samsung did not contact authorities during the first 15 hours after the leaks.  However, a Samsung spokesman on Jan. 28 evening said that the casket began to leak on Jan. 27 about at 11am.  The contract workers began to repair the leak at 11pm.    Samsung did not report the leaks for 26 hours after the leaks.   The post has been revised to reflect the correction.

Correction 2: The original version of this story cited a Herald News  report and said during its latest inspection of the Samsung plant four months ago, the government did not inspect the casket that leaked Jan. 28   However,  Newsis News cited  a government source and said the province government did not inspect the casket during inspections it performed of 28 plants in its jurisdiction on Oct. 11-17, 2012.  The post has been revised to reflect the correction.

Correction 3: The original version of this story cited several Korean press reports and said the dead maintenance worker did not wear a protective suit.  On Jan. 29, Samsung confirmed the 34-year-old known as Park actually wore a protective suit after protests by his family.  The post has been revised to reflect the correction.

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SHARPS To Have Dialogue With Samsung

Photographs of Samsung’s occupational-disease victims were displayed at the entrance to a National Assembly hearing in Oct. 2012 (ohmynews.com).

After six years of campaigns and petitions over 56 occupational-disease deaths at the world’s largest chipmaker, SHARPS has agreed to enter dialogue with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. over the question of compensation for the victims of the company’s blood-disorder clusters and their families.

“Samsung’s dialogue proposal is the result of six years of our ceaseless efforts,” said SHARPS at a press conference January 22.

“Samsung has treated my daughter’s leukemia as though it was a random disease,” said Hwang Sang-ki, who lost her daughter Yumi to occupationally caused leukemia at Samsung.  “They also treated me like a heinous fraudster,” said the 58-year-old taxi driver whose lone outcry for her daughter’s untimely death six years ago led to the formation of SHARPS.

“Because the public has been scorning Samsung, thanks to our long campaign, the company agreed to dialogue,” Hwang concluded.

Ploys

This is not the first time Samsung sought out direct dialogue with SHARPS.  And to date, all proposals have come up with ploys.  In September 2012, through its lawyers, Samsung proposed to seek arbitration on an appeal lawsuit brought by SHARPS, on behalf of a leukemia victim’s family, against the Korea Labor Welfare Corporation, the South Korean government’s workers compensation entity.  SHARPS rejected the proposal because Samsung, a third party to the lawsuit, called for dropping the lawsuit.  In October 2012, Samsung leaked a false story to the media, claiming that it has begun dialogue with SHARPS.

It was November of last year when Samsung sent SHARPS a written request for dialogue through a lawyer representing the company in the appeal lawsuit.  In December, SHARPS accepted the proposal.  In January 2013, Samsung complied with SHARPS’s request and confirmed SHARPS’s acceptance in writing.

The following is the timeline:

March 6, 2007	Hwang Yumi, Samsung’s former chip line worker, died of leukemia.
Sept. 28, 2012	Samsung made its first request for dialogue with SHARPS, on the condition that SHARPS would drop the ongoing workers compensation lawsuit.  SHARPS rejected it.
Oct. 17, 2012	Some media outlets began to run false stories that Samsung had initiated dialogue with SHARPS.
Oct. 18, 2012	Testimony by Samsung executives at a National Assembly hearing confirmed that the aforementioned media reports are false.
Nov. 27, 2012	Choi Wu-su, president of Samsung’s device solution unit, sent a written request for dialogue through a lawyer representing Samsung at the workers’ comp lawsuit
Dec. 20, 2012	SHARPS accepted the request in a letter to Samsung Representative Director Kim Jong-jung.
Jan. 4,  2013	SHARPS in writing urged Samsung to express its willingness to dialogue in writing.
Jan. 11, 2013	Representative Director Kim notified SHARPS, in writing, of the formation of a negotiation team.

Maneuvering

In a letter dated January 11, Choi Wu-su, president of Samsung’s device solution unit, said the company tapped an in-house lawyer and a human resources executive for dialogue with SHARPS.

However, the company appears to be continuing its maneuvering by leaking unsubstantiated leads to the media.   On January 22, the independent Hankyoreh described a new remarkable proposal under consideration at Samsung for the occupational disease victims, citing an anonymous Samsung executive.  “If necessary, we can raise a special fund for the people who developed leukemia not just at Samsung but also anywhere at home and abroad,” the newspaper quoted the unnamed source as saying.

Over the past six years,  SHARPS has profiled 155 workers who contracted various forms of leukemia, multiple sclerosis, and aplastic anemia after employment in the South Korean electronics industry.  As of June 2012, 63 of the 155 have died.  The majority of the workers, 138, were employed at Samsung Electronics, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, and Samsung SDS—the three electronics affiliates of the Samsung Group, the country’s largest conglomerate.  Of the 63 deaths, 56 were Samsung employees.

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Seoul National University Shelves Plans to Appoint Former Samsung Executive As Visiting Scholar

A series of protests and petitions has stopped Seoul National University from hiring Hwang Chang-gyu, former semiconductor chief of Samsung, as visiting scholar.

After protests by SHARPS and student groups on campus, the Sociology department of Seoul National University (SNU) has reneged on plans to hire a former Samsung executive as a visiting scholar.

The SNU sociology faculty requested the university administration discontinue “administrative procedures” to appoint Hwang Chang-gyu, CEO of Samsung’s semiconductor unit between 2004 and 2008, to the cushy position, the department said in a statement posted on its website Jan. 21.

Hwang was once internationally famous for doubling memory chip capacity every year between 2002 and 2008. Hwang’s stint as head of Samsung’s semiconductor unit also is also infamous for a big push on production speed and volume at the cost of workplace safety.

Hwang Yumi, the first leukemia victim who came out against Samsung, was hired at the Samsung chip unit in 2003 when Hwang Chang-gyu began his big push on speed and volume.  In 2005, she was diagnosed with leukemia.  In 2007, Yumi died at the age of 23.  Her family’s public outcry led to the formation of SHARPS.

The month-long attempt at Hwang’s hiring inspired protests at one of South Korea’s most prestigious colleges, from law school to the department seeking to bring him in-house.  The sociology faculty found itself under public pressure and only grudgingly renounced the plans.  “We feel deeply responsible and offer a sincere apology to Dr. Hwang [Chang-gyu] for the abnormal end to his hiring,” said the faculty in the statement.

The faculty went on to pontificate:  “We express concerns about the bias expressed in statements by students.  Interpreting Dr. Hwang’s hiring as a move to desert labor and side with capital cannot rescue sociology from the 20th century paradigm.”

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SHARPS and Students Protest Against Former Samsung CEO’s Appointment As Visiting Scholar At South Korea’s Top University

Seoul National University students and SHARPS voice opposition to the appointment of Hwang Chang-gyu, former CEO of Samsung’s semiconductor unit, as a visiting professor.

SHARPS and students activists at Seoul National University have formed a task force to thwart the university’s month-long attempt to appoint  a former executive of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. to the Sociology department as a visiting professor.

On Jan. 14, the activists and bereaved family members of Samsung blood-disorder victims rallied at the administration building of SNU, calling for the country’s top university to rescind plans to appoint Hwang Chang-gyu, CEO of Samsung’s semiconductor unit in 2004-2008, to the prestigious position.

Hwang’s Law

In 2002, as CTO of Samsung, Mr. Hwang could claim a global reputation when he announced that Samsung would continue to double memory density every year—he dubbed this process Hwang’s Law.  Indeed, Samsung met this goal each year between 2002 and 2008.   However, Samsung has since been unable to develop a viable technology to live up to Hwang’s Law.

Hwang Chang-gyu, former CEO of Samsung’s semiconductor unit, does not know much about sociology but was once good at doubling memory density.

What really drove Hwang’s Law was Samsung’s belief in speed and volume.  As technology blogger Chris Edwards rightly predicted in 2007 regarding the end of Hwang’s Law:  “What is more likely is that Samsung will use the process developed for the 64Gb memory to make cheaper 8, 16 and 32Gb devices come 2009 when this process is meant to [enter] volume production.”

Hwang’s Deadly Law

Samsung’s young, mostly female, employees have worked excessively long hours under hazardous conditions to make the staggering speed and volume of chip production possible.  As of March 2012, SHARPS has profiled 155 workers who contracted various forms of leukemia, multiple sclerosis and aplastic anemia after employment in the electronics industry in South Korea.  More than 50 percent are former Samsung employees.  As of June, 2012, of the 155, 63 have died.

“Hwang Chang-gyu belongs in prison, not college,” said Hwang Sang-ki, the father of Hwang Yumi. His daughter was hired at the Samsung chip unit in 2003 when Hwang Chang-gyu began his big push on speed and volume.  In 2005, she was diagnosed with leukemia.  In 2007 Yumi died at the age of 23.   “Hwang Chang-gyu violated laws and left numerous workers ill and busted union drives,” the 58-year-old father said at the rally.

Hwang Sang-ki, the father of a Samsung leukemia victim, Hwang Yumi: “Hwang Chang-gyu belongs in prison, not college.”

Not a Sociologist

The 60-year-old Mr. Hwang, with a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Massachusetts, has no credentials as a sociologist.  And his post-Samsung career is not impressive at all.  In 2010, Mr. Hwang was named National Chief Technology Officer, a newly created government position responsible for selecting and supporting an emerging strategic industry.  An inquiry by lawmakers discovered that in fiscal 2012 his office spent KRW4.7 billion (U$444 thousand) on remuneration versus KRW12 billion (U$1.1 million) on a total of three R&D projects.

To date, the SNU administration has categorically dismissed repeated requests by students and activists to disclose the rationale behind Mr. Hwang’s appointment.  The university’s personnel committee is scheduled to meet on Jan. 17 to finalize its decision on Mr. Hwang’s hiring.

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South Korea’s Presidential Front Runner Ahn Cheol-Soo Shows Support For Samsung Victims

On Oct. 15, Ahn Cheol-soo, South Korea’s rising Presidential front runner, visited Han Hye-kyung, a wheelchair-bound 30-year-old former Samsung employee who was diagnosed with brain tumors in 2005, after employed with the electronics conglomerate’s semiconductor plant.

On October 15, Ahn Cheol-soo, South Korea’s first-ever formidable independent Presidential candidate, visited a former Samsung employee who has been in a hospital sickbed for seven years for the brain tumors that she believes have developed while working in the chipmaker’s cleanroom.

Ahn, the fifty-year-old antivirus software entrepreneur-turned Presidential contender, visited Han Hye-kyung, the former Samsung chip-line worker who has been effectively bed-bound since 2005 when she underwent her first surgery to remove brain tumors.

After one-hour talks with Han and her family, Ahn endorsed a SHARPS petition repealing legal requirements for employees to prove clear causal links between their medical and working conditions in order to receive workers compensation.  The requirements effectively impede workers from successfully petitioning for workers compensation.

Legal loopholes and lax government oversight have made the world’s 11^th largest economy a dangerous place to work.  In 2007, only seven of about 6,700 cancer-related requests for workers compensation were granted.  In 2011, nine in every 100,000 workers were killed on their jobs—the third-largest workplace fatalities among the OECD countries.

In South Korea, campaigns for December presidential elections have turned into national debate on ways to harness the ubiquitous economic and political power of the chaebols, or family-controlled conglomerates, such as Samsung.  Yet, it is a very unusual move even for a Presidential hopeful to express support for SHARPS and Samsung victims, as the country’s largest conglomerate is seen above the law and public criticism.

Ahn is one of a small breed of entrepreneurs who worked his way to the top by challenging the influence of the chaebol.  Over the past twenty years, Ahn founded and built AhnLab into the country’s biggest software safety provider, while resisting international takeover bids and fighting off attempts by Samsung and other chaebols to relegate his venture-backed startup into a sub-partner.

AhnLab still provides personal software free of charge even as it commands the lion’s share of the corporate software market.  Ahn’s vibrant technology firm often finds itself in conflict with Samsung.  Samsung is the only major brand that does not preload personal computers and laptops with AhnLab’s free software—a sign of the rivalry between the world’s largest electronics maker and the new entrepreneur.

Thanks to his entrepreneurial non-chaebol agenda and public image as a firm reformer, Ahn’s run as South Korea’s first-ever independent Presidential candidate is swaying the political landscape.  He is now mounting a strong challenge to the once-invincible presidential bid by Park Geun-hye, the far-right candidate and a daughter of the dead military dictator Park Chung-hee.

On October 14, a day before visiting Han, Ahn announced a seven-point reform plan limiting the powers of the chaebols.  He is not a labor candidate.  However, it is significant that Ahn used his visit to a Samsung victim as the platform to reaffirm his pledge to reform the conglomerates.

SHARPS remains cautiously supportive of Ahn’s unprecedented move.  “All Presidential candidates should show concerns about occupational disease,” said Kong Jeong-ok, a medical doctor with SHARPS.  “They must go further than merely consoling occupational-disease victims or speaking of the need for reforms of workers compensation regulations.”  She went on saying: “The candidates must pledge to repeal legal requirements for employees to prove ‘work-relatedness’ in order to receive workers compensation [for their occupationally caused medical conditions].”

It was 1999 when the then-19-year-old Han began work assembling memory chips at the Samsung plant in Giheung, South Korea.  In 2001, she resigned from Samsung as her vision and posture began to deteriorate.  In 2005, she was diagnosed with brain tumors.  After several surgeries she is now partially paralyzed and verbally impaired.  During much of the one-hour meeting with Ahn, she spoke through her mother Kim Si-nyeo.  The following is an excerpt from the conversation:

Kim:  Eight months into working at Samsung, her menstruation became irregular.  After three years, it stopped completely.  During that time, she had been seeing an obstetrician.  She took medications or shots.  These were not unusual among her colleagues.

Ahn:  Were there many colleagues suffering from similar conditions?

Kim:  Her condition was not exceptional.  They [Han’s co-workers] often said they keep their obstetrician in business.

Ahn:  Did she continue to see doctors?

Kim:  Her working conditions were terrible.  Samsung says otherwise.  They had only forty minutes for lunch.  Because they did not want go through the trouble of removing their clean suits to buy lunch, they took turns picking up rice rolls from a convenience store.  And they ate their food in the restroom.

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Samsung Under Investor Pressure Over Child Labor

In April 2010, Dutch fund manager APG Asset Management and seven other global investors jointly engaged Samsung, following the death of Park Ji-yeon, a 23-year-old semiconductor assembler of the company.

Global activist funds have taken issue with the employment of child labor by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., the Hankyoreh, South Korea’s independent daily, reported Sept. 18.

“We sent an inquiry to Samsung in August when allegations of Samsung’s use of child labor in China first surfaced,” the newspaper quoted a source of APG Asset Management, of the Netherlands, as saying.  “Employment of child labor won’t be tolerated.  If the allegations turn out to be true we will discontinue investment [in Samsung].”

Confirming receipt of the inquiry, Samsung spokesperson Park Cheon-ho told the Hankyoreh, “APG and other institutional investors requested us to explain the allegations against us.”  He added, “we said there is no child labor [at Samsung], but there is an issue of excessive overtime, which we will examine and address.”

This is not the first time APG, the world’s third-largest pension administrator by assets, has raised concerns about poor labor practices at Samsung.  In April 2010, the Dutch fund manager and seven other global investors jointly engaged Samsung, following the death of Park Ji-yeon, a 23-year-old semiconductor assembler of the company.

However, the effects of the institutional investors’ engagement were limited.  APG said afterwards: “The outcome was not altogether positive.” The institutional investors said, “From the day our engagement started, reports trickled in of Samsung’s behind-the-scenes negotiating with its ailing ex-employees and the families of the deceased.  Local media reported that the company had tried to buy off the case.”

APG concluded, “All in all, we are not satisfied with Samsung’s response so far.”

And young workers have continued to die. During the two years since the global institutional investors’ joint intervention in 2010, the number of victims of Samsung’s leukemia/blood disorder clusters has more than doubled to 56 from 22.

With rising concerns globally about Samsung’s negligence of human rights, SHARPS’s campaign is entering into a new stage.

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Samsung Accused Of Labor Rights Violations In China

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and its Chinese contractors hire underage workers and force their employees, underage or otherwise, to work excessive overtime in harsh working conditions, China Labor Watch, said in a new report released on Sept. 4.

In China, Samsung has a manufacturing network of a dozen directly owned factories and relationships with 250 contractors.  In May-August, CLW, the New York rights group, conducted undercover investigations into six directly owned factories and two contractors.

At least three directly owned facilities regularly hire underage workers.  At Tianjin Samsung Mobile Display Co., Ltd, Huizhou Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, and Shenzhen Samsung Kejian Mobile Telecommunication Technology Co., Ltd, each employing anywhere between 500-2,000 workers, workers under 18 years of age are required to do the same work as adults without extra protection or legal recourse.

Many of the children are students seasonally hired from local vocational schools.  Student workers have to pay Rmb800 (U$126) in upfront middleman fees, or about half a month’s wage, to be hired.  Students are encouraged by management and their teachers, who often work as middlemen, to forge their documents to pass as adults.  The illicit practice is also profiled in an investigative report by the independent daily Hankyoreh of Tianjin Samsung Mobile Display. 

Samsung at least admitted that there was a need for the company to have Chinese workers working overtime.  “We partly agree with the report that there are times when workers need to work overtime at some plants, especially when we launch new products or build new manufacturing lines,”  James Chung, a Samsung spokesman, told the Wall Street Journal.

Excessive working hours is common practice at the eight facilities.  Samsung and its suppliers flout a legally mandated 36-hour workweek and force workers to work more than 100 hours in unpaid overtime.

The worst is Tianjin Intops Co., Ltd, a supplier, where each of an all-women army of 1,200 contract workers has to work standing for 11 hours a day to assemble a cellular phone cast every five seconds.  At the peak of the production cycle, they must work up to 150 hours of overtime per month.

On its home turf of South Korea, Samsung employees are among the best paid.  However, Samsung’s negligence of its own workers is also well-documented.  SHARPS has to date profiled 56 workers who died of a variety of types of blood disorder and cancer  which they developed while employed at the company’s production facilities.

During a high-profile patent infringement lawsuit by Apple against Samsung, testimony by a Samsung designer of Smartphone icons, Wang Jeeyeun accidentally revealed how much the world’s largest electronics maker is addicted to the daily sacrifices of its overworking workers.

During the three-month period, in which she developed icons for Galaxy S, Samsung’s tablet, she said, “I slept about two or three hours a night.”  Ms. Wang had to stop breastfeeding her three-month-old infant to keep up with schedule.

CLW’s latest report was in line with its findings a month earlier of child labor at Samsung’s supplier, HEG Electronics in the city of Huizhou.  It dealt a fresh blow to Samsung because the report came out on the heels of an internal audit by Samsung which exonerated HEG of hiring underage labor.

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