New victims of Samsung companies surface; victims keep up the yearly ‘Bahn-dahl’ activities

New victims from other companies

Recently SHARPs was able to get some information of several cancer victims of different companies from Samsung.

One of them is Kim Jin-ki, 38 year-old male worker of Magna-chip semiconductor in Cheongjoo City, which used to be a part of Hynix Semiconductor.

The press conference in front of KCOMWEL Cheongjoo office on Sep 8. The woman in center is Yim Jinsook, the wife of Kim, with the picture of Kim.

He used to work for 14 years as a maintenance engineer of an ion implanter (the facility for implantation of ion as Arsenic or Phosphorus into the silicon wafer), being exposed to various chemicals and radiation. He got leukemia last year, and several years before he got a thyroid disease too. He died on May 28, due to the graft-versus-host-reaction after a bone marrow transplantation. He had been healthy before he got the diseases from his workplace. There is no familial history of cancer in his parents and his two brothers.

SHARPs with some local activists and a labor attorney prepared his application for workers’ compensation. We made a press conference together on September 8, when his wife applied for compensation to the government.

The second victim we discovered was from the medium-sized company, Kijoo industrial Co. in Incheon City, one of the suppliers of LG and Samsung, manufacturing PCB for those big companies.

The victim’s name is Park Sung Chul, born in 1977 in China. His family used to be the “Chosun-jok”, the Korean people in China, and he recently came back to Korea and got the new nationality as a South Korean.

But he and all his family have been living as ‘migrant’ workers. That’s why Park who had graduated university of economics had to work as a blue collar worker, in the cleansing and plating process using various chemicals.

After three years of work, he got leukemia. The heart-breaking story is he had given up further treatment after three times of chemotherapy. He had been recommended bone marrow transplantation, but he refused all kinds of therapy… due to the lack of money… The family of migrant workers was too poor to support all the treatment. So he had been lying in his home under his old mother’s care, and died on September 22.

His uncle had tried to find out someone who can help them for workers’ compensation, and through a local NGO he could meet the Korean Metal Workers Union. On August 10, Korean Metal Workers Union put in a collective compensation application of many cancer victims including Park. His cancer and death show all the typical problems in workers’ claiming their right to safety and health.

SHARPs activities

The poster for the website of Bahn-dahl 2011. You can see the faces doing 'Ho~' on the left.

SHARPs has been making a concentrated series of public activities under that name every year, at the end of July. In the Korean language, the abbreviation of that name is “Bahn-Dahl” which has the same pronunciation as “half-moon”. So  the symbol of these actions is the half-moon.

This year, we’ve changed the Bahn-Dahl into six weeks of action, under the slogan of “Ho~”.

The “Ho~” means the motion of blowing a breath, usually to cool down hot food for child or to reduce pain of a wound. It can be used when people try to comfort pain of others, both physically and mentally. This slogan was made for waking up the heart of solidarity that people have within themselves, and for making a space for us to tell them what is the real pain of the victims and what must be done to relieve it.

We will gather signatures demanding;

1. to compensate the victims right now (and accept and follow the court decision and withdraw the appeal),

2. to disclose all the information. Especially, the government agencies like OSHRI in KOSHA must reveal their research results according to the law on public organizations’ disclosuree of information. Also we are demanding the right to participate in the relevant research.

3. and to take the responsibility on the part of the government and the company. Especially, the government must make   to improve the working environment to guarantee workers’ safety and health, covering all the electronic sector.

Bahn-Dahl was begun on September 21 in Suwon city where the major Samsung semiconductor factories are located. Off-line activities of Bahn-Dahl is mainly a candle-light rally once a week with some cultural performances like songs, dances, and short movies, at Busan, Suwon, Seoul, Cheonan, and Cheongju cities.

On-line activities include internet petition-signing to a demand letter, which will go on till October and finally be made into a formal protest letter to the government and Samsung.

Here are some photos of the first Bahn-Dahl in front of Suwon Station

The Lawsuits

The first group of five leukemia and lymphoma victims have filed the lawsuit against government’s refusal to compensate; all the cases went to the high court on July 14, and now are in the course of preparing documents.

The second group of victims in the lawsuit is composed of four victims with different diseases like brain tumor (Han Hyekyoung, Samsung LCD), aplastic anemia (You Myoungwha, Samsung semiconductor), multiple sclerosis (Lee Heejin, Samsung semiconductor), and malignant brain cancer (Lee Yoonjeong, Samsung semiconductor); they are each in the course of court processes. Two of them, You Myoungwha and Lee Yoonjeong, are from the same department of Burn-in test in Samsung semiconductor factory at Onyang City.

The press conference of second group lawsuit is at the Seoul administrative court. (from the left) Han Hyekyoung (brain tumor, Samsung LCD), her mother, two lawyers, You Youngjong, the father of You Myounghwa (aplastic anemia, Samsung semiconductor), Jeong Heesoo, the husband of Lee Yoonjeong (brain cancer, Samsung semiconductor).

The Victims

At present, SHARPs has gathered the information of about 150 victims, among which there are around 50 deaths. The exact number needs to be calculated and updated again.

The number who have applied for national workers’ compensation through SHARPs is 21, including one Magna-chip worker. Of these 21 cases, 18 of them have been decided by KCOMWEL  to NOT be compensated, and others are still in the process of decision.

Lee Yoon-jeong, who had been diagnosed with malignant brain cancer in 2010 and been sentenced to be able to live only one year by the doctor, fell again recently. Her cancer couldn’t be removed fully. She gets chemotherapy again now, but the prognosis doesn’t seem to be good. We are praying for her survival with the least suffering. Her age is 31 now.

Han Haekyoung, the severely disabled women after removal of a huge tumor from her cerebellum since 2005, has been hospitalized in ‘Green Hospital’ for free to get rehabilitation treatment. However she and her mother have been suffering from poverty because none of them can work for money. SHARPs has been supporting the least money for their life every month for more than two years, by collecting money from many nameless contributors.

As the number of victims becomes bigger, the types and depth of pain of them which must be shared by the whole society become more serious. Many of the victims and their families need either economical or psychological support, or both.

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Factory factored into 2 workers’ deaths: Court (Joongang Daily, June 24)

In a blow to Samsung Electronics, a court ruled yesterday that the deaths of two employees at Samsung’s semiconductor plant should be considered an industrial accident and that Samsung should compensate their families accordingly.

The two workers died of leukemia, and their families filed for industrial accident compensation with Korean Workers’ Compensation and Welfare (KWCW) three years ago, claiming their illness had been caused by exposure to harmful elements at the plant.

But KWCW refused the claim, saying it saw no direct link between leukemia and the semiconductor plant. That prompted the families to file a lawsuit in January of last year.

The Seoul Administrative Court said in a ruling yesterday: “Although it is unclear exactly how Hwang and Lee caught leukemia, it can be construed that their exposures to dangerous chemicals and radiation were catalysts, at the very least. Thus it’s safe to conclude there is a link between leukemia and the workplace.”

The court added that research by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency proves that workers at chip facilities have higher risk of cancers of the lymphatic system and leukemia, which shows environmental factors had an effect on their diseases.

But the court did not acknowledge such a link for two other workers and a family member of a late worker, citing a lack of evidence.

Samsung said it plans to appeal. A Samsung official told Yonhap, “The ruling goes against the results of investigations by a state-approved organization on semiconductor plants’ occupational environment,” adding that it will soon have results from another independent study.

The civic group Banollim, formed to protect rights of semiconductor workers, claims 20 workers at the plant suffered from leukemia or cancer, with nine deaths since 1998.

Samsung maintains that there are no such risks at its plant, citing an investigation by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency in 2007 and 2008, which concluded it’s unlikely that the plant caused the diseases.

In June, Samsung said that it commissioned an independent, yearlong safety study to examine health risks at its semiconductor plant, which will be led by Environ, an environment and health consultancy, and carried out with input from some 20 academic experts.

By Kim Hyung-eun [hkim@joongang.co.kr]

(original article: http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2937990)

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Following worker suicide, Samsung reluctantly pledges change (Hangyoreh)

The company initially ignored four suicide attempts by the same worker without taking action

By Jeon Jin-sik

Ninety-seven days. The chrysanthemums were a faint yellow with their heads dropped limply. The season changed from bitter cold to spring landscapes. At the viewing room for a young man who wilted away like the flowers, there was merely candlelight.

At the viewing room in Soonchunhyang University Cheonan Hospital in South Chungcheong Province early Sunday morning, family members of the late Kim Ju-hyeon were just packing up their things. Kim, an employee at the Tangjeong factory of Samsung Electronics in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, took his own life on Jan. 11 by jumping from the thirteenth floor of his dormitory. His suicide came 373 days after he joined the company with the congratulations of his family.

Contending that Kim took his own life due to depression from excessive working hours and stress, the family members demanded an apology from the company and measures to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future. They also claim that the company ignored no fewer than four previous suicide attempts by Kim without taking any appropriate measures on the morning of the incident.

“Being a worker for Samsung is not only a good thing,” said father Kim Myeong-bok 56, wiping away tears. “It was the first time I understood there was a world like this.”

A notebook confirmed to be Kim’s after the incident includes sentences such as “twelve hours of work = standard” and “one year and I’m dead.”

The record of the emergency care center at Soonchunhyung University Cheonan Hospital, which examined Kim’s body on the day of his death, includes phrases about “depression” and “references to suicide.” Samsung has refused to acknowledge this evidence that it knew about Kim’s suicide attempts.
Kim Myeong-bok and Samsung Electronics representatives signed an agreement on Apr. 15 that included a company apology and pledge to prevent similar incidents from occurring.

“I had no idea it would be so hard getting this single sheet of paper,” Kim said.

On the same day, the bereaved family members withdrew a January petition to the Cheonan branch of the Ministry of Employment of Labor asking for special labor oversight at Samsung Electronics, which the company demanded as part of its terms for signing the agreement.

Kim’s family members paid a visit Sunday to the dormitory where he had lived, but were unable to stay for even ten minutes due to control measures from the company. Following Kim’s cremation at Cheonan Memorial Park, the family plans to keep the container with his ashes at their home in Incheon for the time being.

“We will monitor to see whether the measures to prevent reoccurrence are properly implemented,” said Lee Jong-ran, a labor attorney with Banollim, a human rights and health watchdog for semiconductor workers.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

Original source article at: http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/473516.html

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Samsung blocks investigation on an LCD engineer’s suicide (Hangyoreh)

As workers streamed out of the building for lunch at noon on Thursday, three women stood in front of the head office of Samsung Electronics in Seoul’s Seocho neighborhood holding a funeral portrait and wailing. The women are the mother, older sister, and aunt of Kim Ju-hyeon, a worker at the company’s Tangjeong LCD complex who committed suicide in his dormitory on Jan. 11. Kim was 25.

Kim Jeong, the elder sister of Kim Ju-hyeon, holds brother’s portrait in a request to speak with a representative in front of the Samsung Electronics headquarters in Seoul. (Photo: Lim Ji-sun)

Thursday marked one week since the bereaved family members, who had previously issued their calls for an investigation in front of the Tangjeong complex in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, assumed their positions in front of the head office in Seoul. Kim’s older sister Jeong, 28, said, “We came to Seoul after the people at the Tangjeong complex told us, ‘It is out of our hands now, go tell the head office,’ but nobody will meet with us.”

Samsung positioned employees to physically prevent Kim’s family members from entering the building. The same scene has been repeated for a full week, with dozens of men positioned at the entrance to the main building to block the bereaved family members.

Shockingly, the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) has also been silent to their demands for an investigation. On Feb. 28, the 49th day since Kim’s death, the ministry notified them of a decision not to disclose Samsung Electronics’ employment regulations, explaining that they were Samsung’s “trade secrets.”

This decision has been called unprecedented even by those within MOEL.

“The employment regulations are a document that is made well-known to all workers, clearly specifying their working conditions and so forth,” said a MOEL official. “I cannot fathom how this could be a trade secret.”

“In my eight years as a labor attorney, I have never seen the Ministry of Employment and Labor refuse to disclose a company’s employment regulations,” said Lee Jeong-ran, a labor attorney with the group Banollim, a civic organization that advocates for the health and human rights of workers in the semiconductor industry. “The decision not to disclose the regulations is evidence that the Ministry of Employment and Labor is assigning itself the role of Samsung’s puppet,” Lee added.

Samsung Electronics stated, “[The employment regulations] are designated internally as something to be kept confidential from the outside.”

MOEL also said that no data exists on suicides and declined to disclose the findings of Kim Ju-hyeon’s special health evaluation, on the grounds that it was “under investigation.”

Kim, who began work as an equipment engineer on Samsung Electronics’ LCD color filter production line in January 2010, jumped to his death from the 13th floor of his dormitory. He had been suffering from stress due to workdays lasting over 12 hours, as well as a skin disease of unknown cause. Fifty days after his death, no funeral has yet been held.

Banollim and other groups that have battled Samsung Electronics over occupational leukemia cases designated the third week of March as “memorial week for workers who have died from semiconductor and electronics industry accidents.” They plan to hold rallies during the week at sites such as Seoul Station and the area near the main offices of Samsung.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

Original article at: http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/466463.html

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Samsung workers, Samsung, and the Jeju naval base (from nobasestories)

* Image source: Ku Do-Hee, Voice of People, Feb. 4, 2011
‘portrait of Kim Joo-Hyun, the deceased Samsung worker in mortuary

* Image source: Samsung General Labor Union, Jan. 26, 2011

‘ Workers and activists has been doing relay one-man protest in front of the Samsung factories of Suwon and Cheonan, every Wednesday, to demand the withdrawal of unjust lay-off of a worker who claimed for company’s acknowledgement on labor union.’

_________________________________________

Despite New Year holidays (Feb. 2 to 6) in lunar calendar in Korea, there are people who cannot enjoy them. The bereaved family members of the deceased Mr. Kim, Joo-Hyun, a worker in the Samsung Electronics LCD, City of Cheonan are part of those.

Even though, it was Jan. 11 when Mr. Kim Joo Hyun made suicide by jumping from the rooftop of the factory dormitory, his family members are still keeping mortuary where his portrait is still being placed on, demanding acknowledgement and apology from Samsung for the cause of Kim’s death. The investigation on the cause of his death, such as excessive working time and on company’s negligence on his suicide has been still going on as well, the Voice of People reports.

The Stop Samsung blog has reported on Jan. 14:

‘He suffered from skin disease due to chemicals and depression because of severe job stress. This shocking news is even more disturbing since it follows a rash of similar suicides by young workers at the Foxconn factory in China and inspires us to increase our determination to bring justice for the Samsung workers and families. He is the second suicide at Samsung this month! See the article by Elizabeth Grossman HERE for more background and details. In memory of Kim Joo hyun, we ask that you join the Samsung Accountability Campaign on the Causes page HERE.’

For Samsung workers’ occupational death and protests, see HERE and HERE as well.

Samsung is not only infamous for its no-labor union policy but also for its omnipotent abuse of power throughout South Korea. The Republic of Korea is called as the Samsung Republic in satire.

Samsung is also involving in Korea Aerospace industries along with Hyundae (The current president Lee Myung-Bak is originally from Hyundae) and Daewoo etc., producing and exporting many weapon systems, for example its branch, Samsung Tales leading maker and exporter of naval combat systems.

It has been alarming when the Jeju media (Jeju Sori1, Jeju Sori 2, Media Jeju)  reported that the Jeju Island government had made contract for partnership with Samsung C & T to achieve export of 1trillion won on Jan. 21, 2011.

It reported that the Jeju Island and Samsung made contact to collaborate on scouting for bright export goods, supporting for foreign marketing and inheriting on export know-how for the Jeju Island government officers.

The Samsung C & T is told to be the matrix of Samsung with its total sale price exceeding 10 trillion 876 billion won last year, which is near four times of the Jeju Island budget this year. It was also told that all the information and resources acquired during the process of execution on the agreement conclusion would be ‘absolute secrete.’

Further, the Samsung C & T has made contract with the navy for the naval base construction along with Daerim who is involving the construction on space museum thorough its consortium. The Samsung C & T is also being involved in KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Corporation) consortium along with the KEPCO, Hyundae and Doosan Industry, which has made contract with the United Arab Emirates on nuclear power plant in Dec. , 2009.

Jan. 21 was the next day when the Jeju media reported the contradictory decision by the members of the special committee on the settlement of the conflict on naval base, Island Council, who were told to decide to urge the prime minister for earlier legislation on the revised bill on the Jeju special law which included the support basis on the Jeju naval base, while 40% of the members had voiced on the unjust process on the annulment of the absolute preservation areas in the Gangjeong village.

The Samsung, supporting the drive by the central and Jeju Island government, Jeju Island Council for Jeju being one of the seven wonders of nature, is grasping the Jeju Island, as it has wielded power throughout South Korea. Please watch Samsung. Please boycott Samsung product in your countries and if you can, protest on its oppression of workers and involvement in the Jeju naval base construction.

Original post at: http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2011/02/jeju-update-samsung-workers-samsung-and.html

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Samsung attempts to cover up industrial accidents with money (Hangyoreh)

A civic organization member in support of the human rights of workers in the semiconductor industry holds a signboard during a one-person demonstration mourning the death Park Ji-hyeon, a Samsung Electronics employee who passed away due to complications from leukemia, in front of the Samsung Headquarters in Seoul‘s Seocho neighborhood, April 2.

By Heo Jae-hyeon

A number of people have come forward and claimed that Samsung Electronics has offered large settlements to employees and their families in order to persuade them to drop industrial accident claims. Employees filed the claims after contracting diseases such as leukemia while working in the company’s semiconductor and liquid crystal display (LCD) plants. Surviving family members of employees who have already died from diseases, as well as employees currently suffering from disease and their family members, have claimed that Samsung has offered hundreds of millions of won in settlements in order to persuade them to drop their industrial accident claims and terminate contact with civic organizations.

Meeting with journalists on July 5, the mother of Park Ji-yeon, an employee who died on March 31 after contracting leukemia in 2007 while working at a Samsung Electronics semiconductor plant, said that she received a settlement of around 400 million Won ($333,605) from Samsung in early April and that she dropped her industrial accident lawsuit in mid-May. Park’s mother, identified by the surname Hwang, said, “Samsung instructed me not to meet with groups like the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and to move away so that members of civic organizations would be unable to contact me.”

According to accounts from her family members, Samsung Electronics secretly proposed the settlement to them just before Park passed away. Her case was in the middle of administrative litigation after the Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service (KComWel) ruled in 2009 that it would not recognize the case as an industrial accident.
“The settlement offered by Samsung Electronics was in the neighborhood of 400 million Won,” a family member said. “It included 380 million Won in pure settlement, including 50 million Won in insurance money, along with around 20 million Won in funeral expenses. As a condition for the settlement, Samsung asked that we give up the industrial accident suit and that we not have any contact with civic organizations.”

Park’s family faced a difficult choice. The costs of her two years and nine months of treatment alone was more than 100 million Won, and they were in debt by some 50 million Won. In the end, they decided to take the money offered by Samsung and drop the lawsuit. The money arrived in Hwang’s Nonghyup bank account on April 2, an hour before Park’s ashes were scattered in the waters off Sokcho. In her bankbook, the name of the sender was clearly printed out: “Samsung Electronics.”

Hwang felt belated remorse for taking the money from Samsung. After reaching the settlement amid a difficult situation, she canceled the lawsuit and cut off contact with the media, she said, but “after paying off all the debts incurred from her treatment, I felt empty inside, and I could not shake the feeling that I had let Ji-yeon down.”

“They gave us money in order to bury our child’s death away in the ground,” Hwang said. “If Samsung Electronics bears moral responsibility, it is only right for it to give consolation money, but why make us drop the industrial accident suit and prevent us from contacting civic organizations? They are using the weakness of poor people to buy them off with money in order to conceal the truth. We were used by Samsung.”

More accounts have surfaced to indicate that Samsung Electronics has persuaded not only Park’s family, but also other sick employees and family members of deceased employees to drop industrial accident claims. This fact was attested to in detail by the family members of Han Hye-kyeong, a 31-year-old Samsung Electronics LCD plant employee suffering from a brain tumor, and Yeon Jae-wook, a Samsung Electronics LCD plant employee who passed away in 2009 from a mediastinal tumor.

A Samsung Electronics official came to see Yeon’s family in mid-March, just after KComWel ruled that it would not recognize his illness as an industrial accident. His family was planning to continue the legal battle by requesting another KComWel judgment together with the civic organization Banollim. At that time, however, an official with Samsung Electronics’ Environment & Safety Group came by and offered to provide assistance with the industrial accident recognition process. The official also offered a settlement in the amount of 120 million Won. Yeon’s family turned the official down, however, and said they would request the judgment with Banollim. The visiting official said curtly, “If you work with Banollim, we cannot give you any money.”

Kim Si-nyeo, the 54-year-old mother of Han Hye-kyeong, received a similar offer in early June. She was called up with settlement offers by a Samsung Electronics higher-up and an ordinary employee whose names she does not recall. Kim currently endures very difficult living conditions, having moved not long ago from a 17 million Won deposit rental unit to a 5 million Won monthly rental unit in order to arrange the money for her daughter to receive treatment in her battle with a brain tumor. She also sold off the small restaurant she previously ran. Now she has no income. The settlement offer from Samsung was very tempting, but Kim turned it down.

“Samsung became a social problem, leaving my daughter exposed to that dangerous work environment, and its improper practice of trying to cover that up with money needs to be fixed,” she said.

Samsung Electronics has denied the recent flood of claims. A human resources team official who was in contact with Hwang refused an interview request from the Hankyoreh, calling it “burdensome.”

“It is true that we met with family members of people who were fighting disease or had passed away, but we merely discussed assistance with livelihood expenses, and we never told anyone to drop an industrial accident claim,” said the Samsung Electronics public relations office, who instead sent an e-mail response to the Hankyoreh. “We have recently, formulated criteria for assisting people in critical condition and are offering additional support.”

But the family members who met with Samsung officials tell a different story. Hwang said, “Samsung explicitly told me to drop the industrial accident suit, and I dropped it.”

“Samsung is lying,” she repeated.

“Samsung does not say outright that you cannot file an industrial accident claim,” said Yeon Mi-jeong, the younger sister of Yeon Jae-wook. “But what does it mean when they say they cannot give you consolation money if you file an industrial accident claim through a civic organization?”

Kim Ki-young, a former Samsung Electronics section chief who retired in early May after contracting Wegener’s granulomatosis, a rare disease, after working for around a decade as an engineer at the company, met on April 1 with a company official and a section chief identified by the surname Lee. Kim asked Lee, who was visiting him at his home in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, to cooperate in his industrial accident claim. The response, however, was not favorable.

According to a recording of the conversation between Kim and the Samsung official, the latter recommended that Kim resign and said, “A condition of receiving consolation money is that you not file any civil, criminal, or administrative lawsuit.” Kim responded by saying, “It is an unfair demand to say that we cannot hold the company responsible for the disease any more after receiving recognition of an industrial accident.”

Why does Samsung Electronics have its feelers up over the question of the recognition of industrial accident claims by employees? According to Banollim, the company is engaged in “petty ploys” to conceal its industrial accidents. Labor attorney Lee Jong-ran said, “When Samsung outwardly says that it has faith in its plants’ safety, while secretly persuading people to take settlements, that is an attempt to cover up an industrial disaster.”

Kim Eun-gi, head of the KCTU labor safety bureau, said that having Park Ji-yeon’s administrative suit dropped was part of a carefully plotted strategy by Samsung Electronics. According to Kim, Park’s case had the highest odds of victory among the six employees who had received industrial accident non-recognition judgments in May 2009.

“Samsung probably took into account the effect it would have on the industrial accident claims of the other workers if Ms. Park’s case was recognized as an industrial accident,” Kim said.

Original article at: http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/ENGISSUE/74/430105.html

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Samsung plans workplace environment investigation (Hangyoreh article)

By Kim Gyeong-lak

The Samsung Electronics semiconductor production line, which has been the subject of controversy due to a series of health complications including leukemia cases among its employees, will undergo a workplace environment investigation starting in mid-July. However, plans for participation by civic organizations like Banollim that have called on Samsung to take responsibility for the leukemia cases, as well as bereaved families of Samsung employees who died from the disease, failed to come to investigation.

Samsung Electronics announced plans Thursday to form an investigation team made up of some 20 industrial health researchers from South Korea and abroad and carry out a yearlong investigation of the semiconductor production line work environment beginning in mid-July. Samsung has been swept up in a firestorm of controversy over workplace environment hazards as some twenty employees who worked on the line over the past decade or so have developed leukemia or lymphoma. Ten of these employees subsequently died, according to Samsung Electronics.

The study is being led by Environ, an environmental health consultancy headquartered in Washington, D.C. Established in 1982, the company is considered an authority in chemical hazard assessment and environment hazard management, Samsung Electronics stated. Also participating in the study are researchers from U.S. public health graduate schools at Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and Johns Hopkins University, as well as researchers from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology.
Samsung Electronics said that it plans to examine the entire semiconductor manufacturing process to determine the presence of workplace environment hazards and carcinogenic materials, and to investigate the possibility of future illnesses.

“The study will also examine connections between the exposure to harmful materials on the production line and the duties of the people who became ill,” the company said.

Meanwhile, bereaved family members of deceased Samsung employees and groups such as Banollim that have made allegations about Samsung’s responsibility for the leukemia cases decided not to take part in the examination.

In April, Samsung Electronics said that if Banollim were to nominate a trustworthy organization, it would consider plans for including it on the investigation team.

Gong Yu Jeong-ok, an industrial medicine physician and Banollim member, said that she did receive a request for participation from a Sungkyunkwan University professor surnamed Kim, but she did not accept “because while Samsung was making requests for a joint investigation, at the same time it was doing what amounted to buying off the family members of the victims.”

The group leveled allegations earlier this month that Samsung Electronics has been persuading the family members of victims to drop their industrial accident lawsuits by offering them considerable sums of money.

See original article on The Hangyoreh website: http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/430663.html

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[Hankyoreh 21] Samsung and Hyundai’s feast amid famine (1): The gap in profits between contracting and subcontracting companies has become wider than the gap prior to the economic crisis

By Gwak Jeong-soo

“Hyundai Motor is racing ahead at full speed with no brakes.”

“Samsung Electronics has had its greatest renewal in history.”

Not long ago, the press showered praise upon Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor as they announced their 1Q10 results. Since the second half of 2009, the two companies have been setting and breaking quarterly records. Perhaps thanks to their efforts, South Korea’s economic results have been enough to make the nation the honor student even among the members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the organization for advanced nations.
At the same time, however, some concerned observers have begun to ask whether this praise is truly warranted. According to these observers, we should not let ourselves be dazzled by the outwardly impressive numbers, but instead turn our attention to the suffering of the many small and mid-sized companies hidden in the shade of these major corporations.

“Major corporations have been producing their greatest results ever, registering double-digit profit margins since the second half of 2009, but the small and mid-sized subcontractors doing business with them are unable to achieve profit margins of even 1 to 2 percent,” said a Mr. Lee, the president of an electronics and automobile parts producer in Incheon.

In order to uncover the real face of the polarization between large and small companies, the Hankyoreh 21 placed under the microscope South Korea’s leading companies, Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor, and the subcontractors that are doing business with them. The weekly magazine compared first quarter results for 2007, just before the global economic crisis struck, 2009, when the recovery began and 2010, when the growth trend continued to accelerate.

The subcontractors examined were the 755 of the roughly 1,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) doing business with Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor for which objective financial information could be verified. Of these 755, a total of 498 were doing business with Samsung Electronics and 257 with Hyundai Motor. The magazine’s efforts to confirm company financial information were assisted by the Korea Information Service, a corporate information database.

The analysis showed that polarization between the large companies and the subcontractors was far greater than expected. While the contracting companies were boasting of double-digit profit margins in 2010, many parts companies were languishing at one-quarter the returns of the major company on average and had yet to return to pre-crisis levels. Naturally, the gap between the contracting and subcontracting company had grown wider than its status before the crisis struck.

In the case of the operating profit margin, a company profitability indicator calculated by dividing operating profits by sales, Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor respectively recorded profit margins of 8.23 percent and 7.01 percent for 2009. For Samsung Electronics subcontractors, however, the profit margin was 5.66 percent on average, and for Hyundai Motor subcontractors it was just 2.48 percent. The gap widened further in the first quarter of 2010. Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor leapt up to 14.56 percent and 8.35 percent, respectively, but Samsung Electronics subcontractors actually dropped from 2009 to 4.87 percent. Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor subcontractors recorded 4.62 percent, a higher value than in 2009 but still half that of the contracting company. The differential between contracting company and parts company for 1Q10 was 9.79 percentage points for Samsung Electronics and 3.73 percentage points for Hyundai Motor, far greater than the respective tallies of 2.9 percentage points and 3.01 percentage points in 2007.

The situation is the same with the net profit margin, another profitability indicator calculated by dividing net profits by revenue. Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor recorded net profit margins of 6.92 percent and 9.3 percent, respectively, for 2009. In contrast, Samsung Electronics subcontractors recorded 3.12 percent, and Hyundai Motor subcontractors just 2.73 percent. For 1Q10, both Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor rose into the double-digit range, with net profit margins of 12.78 percent and 11.39 percent respectively. Their subcontractors, however, actually dropped in net profit margin, as Hyundai subcontractors came in at 0.16 percent and Samsung subcontractors at 3 percent.

In 2007, the gap between contracting and subcontracting companies was 6.82 percentage points for Samsung Electronics and 2.49 percentage points for Hyundai Motor, but in January of 2010 it had risen to 9.78 percentage points and 11.23 percentage points, respectively. The profit margin and net profit levels for subcontractors at the time totaled just 3 to 6.5 percent of their pre-crisis totals.

Also demonstrating the severity of the polarization is the revenue growth rate, an indicator of company growth that represents the ratio of current year revenue growth to revenue for the previous year. For Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor, those values were 23.06 percent and -1.03 percent for 2009, but their rise in 1Q10 was explosive, with Samsung Electronics registering 33.45 percent and Hyundai Motor 39.56 percent. Meanwhile, parts companies fell far short of their contracting company, with Samsung’s recording revenue growth of 5.24 percent, and Hyundai’s down to -4.58 percent.

The polarization between larger and smaller companies evident in sales and profit statistics. Hyundai Motor sales rose by 1.57 trillion Won ($1.3 billion) in 2008, but sales by subcontractors rose just 44.6 billion Won. In 2009, Hyundai Motor sales dropped by 330 billion Won, but its parts suppliers’ sales plummeted by 936.4 billion Won. When subcontractors enjoyed increases, it was a fraction of those seen by the contracting company, and when their profits dropped, the fall was several times that of the contracting company.

A comparison between the operating profits of Samsung Electronics and its subcontractors also reveals noteworthy results. Samsung Electronics operating profits underwent a rapid drop in 2008, the year the crisis struck, falling by 1.8 trillion Won. In contrast, its subcontractors enjoyed an increase of 203.8 billion Won. In 2009, when the recovery began, the situation made a 180-degree turn, with Samsung Electronics’ operating profits leaping up by 3.25 trillion Won and subcontractor profits falling by 154.1 billion Won. The situation has been a feast for the large company and a funeral for the subcontractors.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

(This is one of two articles in a series.)

See original article at: http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_business/429935.html

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[Hankyoreh 21] Samsung and Hyundai’s feast amid famine (2): Subcontractors say contracting companies should reflect rising production costs when quoting delivery unit costs

By Gwak Jeong-soo

South Korea’s favorable economic ratings despite the difficulties experienced by small and medium-sized companies are due to the relative importance of major corporations like Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor. The two companies posted exports last year totaling 74.8 trillion Won ($62.5 billion) and 15.8 trillion Won, respectively. Together, they accounted for 19.2 percent of South Korea’s total exports of 460.9 trillion Won. The two companies’ sales of 121.7 trillion Won also accounted for 11.45 of South Korea’s GDP. The optical illusion caused by the deepening of the economic concentration of large corporations is hiding the seriousness of the polarization between large and small and medium-sized businesses.

There are conflicting answers from large and small to medium-sized businesses as to the reason behind the polarization. Subcontractors claim that the main reason is that major companies do not guarantee optimum returns to them.

“Major factors for subpar returns include not only unreasonably lower delivery unit costs, but also the serious issue that the prices do not properly reflect factors such as the rise in the international prices of raw materials,” said a Mr. Lee, the president of a car parts manufacturer in Incheon.
Others say major corporations do not keep pledges made with the government.

“When we meet with the president at Cheong Wa Dae, the chairmen of major corporations promise to show consideration for small and medium-sized businesses, but the reality is completely different,” said the president of another industrial company. “Primary subcontractors directly dealing with major corporations make about 1 to 2 percent profit, but secondary and tertiary suppliers are running virtually in the red.”

Samsung, however, has a contrasting view of the situation.

“Since the global market price of each part is transparent and open, the reality is that we cannot show preferential treatment to domestic parts producers,” said Ha Joo-ho, a member of Samsung Electronics’ public relations team. “If we buy domestic parts at a higher cost, it will cause arguments over fairness. Samsung, as a global leader, offers its products at prices higher than competing firms, so it has the wherewithal to be a bit more generous with its unit prices for delivered parts.”

Yeon Tae-gyeong of Hyundai Motor’s public relations team found the cause in the business environment, noting that carmakers did so well last year because of good exports and internal demand due to rise in the exchange rate and tax support.

“Out of consideration of the environment, Hyundai recently decided as a group to sign production and fair trade agreements with about 2,700 small and medium-sized businesses, including primary, secondary and tertiary subcontractors and boosted plans to support them,” said Yeon.

The trend in the unit price of delivered goods since the economic crisis lends strength to the claims of small and medium-sized businesses. Since the first half of 2008, the international price of raw materials has skyrocketed, but firms producing finished goods have ignored demands by subcontractors to raise unit prices. When parts producers have strongly protested, threatening to suspend production, the major firms accept only half of the demanded price hike.

As the economic crisis took full root in the second half of the year, however, measures were taken to lower the unit price of parts, canceling out most of the rise of the first half of the year. They have had to bite the bullet at the coercive attitude of auto corporations, who tell subcontractors to quit delivering goods if they do not like the price offered.

“In 2009, carmakers did not lower their parts prices, at least nominally, and the rise in personnel and electricity costs were also not reflected in parts prices,” said Heo Man-yeong of the Korea Foundry Cooperative Association. “Carmakers have said that they will reflect the rising international price of raw materials in their parts quotes, but they calculate the unit price based on major parts producers who procure their goods at relatively low prices, so small to medium-sized businesses have no choice but to incur losses.”

The government has announced a plan to cultivate some 300 rising small and medium-sized companies as “hidden champions” by 2020 to boost employment, but there has been criticism that in the current reality, this is like seeking a fish from a tree.

Yunhan University President Kim Young-ho said small and medium-sized businesses account for 99 percent of all companies and 88 percent of total employment, but make just 2 percent of profits in subcontractor deals with major companies. If this continues, most will die within in three to four years.

Small and medium-sized businesses agree that the rise in raw material prices must be properly reflected in the delivery costs per unit. They also say it is urgent to change the system in which major companies monopolize profits.

Kim Seong-su, president of electronics partsmaker Seoo Telecom, said “Side-by-side development of major and small to medium-sized businesses is urgent for national development, but the current structure is one in which major corporations are monopolizing returns and small to medium-sized companies are virtually working as farmhands.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

(This is the second of two articles.)

See original link at: http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_business/429936.html

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Handbook reportedly confirming dangerous chemicals at Samsung semiconductor factory to be released

A copy of the handbook was obtained by the Hangyoreh 21

The controversy over reported workplace hazard at a Samsung Electronics semiconductors plant that may have led employees to contract leukemia has been rising following the disclosure of an internal “environmental handbook” showing the use of six types of carcinogenic materials and more than 40 types of dangerous irritants.

For Issue No. 811 to be released Monday, the magazine Hankyoreh 21 obtained a copy of the notebook, which was provided to engineers in charge of process management at the Samsung semiconductor factory in Giheung. Some 50 types of chemicals and gases appearing on the list of “Factors Influencing the Environment for the Different Processes” were analyzed for harmfulness by a team of experts, including Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Health Professor Yoon Chung-sik and Catholic University of Daegu Industrial Health Professor Choi Sang-joon. The notebook in question was classified as top secret, and distribution outside the company was prohibited.

According to the analysis, a total of six carcinogenic materials were used in the semiconductor plant, namely trichloroethylene, thinner, sensitizing solution, dimethylacetamide, arsine (AsH3) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4).

Trichloroethylene, which was used in the washing and etching process, can cause diseases such as leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, renal cancer and breast cancer. Choi said, “Trichloroethylene is a substance that Samsung currently claims not to use.” Dimethylacetamide, also used in the washing and etching process, is carcinogenic and causes sterility, spontaneous abortion and respiratory organ impairment. Hwang Yu-mi, who passed away from acute leukemia in March 2007 at the age of 23 after working in the third line at the Giheung plant, was tasked with washing work.
Sensitizing solution, which is used in the ‘photography’ process, contains dichromates and benzene, both carcinogens. Dichromates cause an allergic reaction when they come in contact with the skin and lead to asthma and breathing difficulties. Benzene is a major carcinogen that causes diseases such as leukemia. When inhaled, it leads to drowsiness and dizziness.

The environmental handbook also confirmed use of some 40 types of irritants such as hydroquinone and methane that can cause menstrual irregularity, sterility, insomnia and dementia.

To date, forty-seven people have requested assistance from semiconductor worker’s health and human rights watchdog Banollim, claiming to have contracted cancer or rare ailments after working at the Samsung semiconductor and LCD plants.

Industrial medicine specialist Gong-Yu Jeong-ok said, “We have seen previously healthy young people with no family history of disease contracting cancer, and if it has been confirmed that the factory where they worked uses all of these different kinds of carcinogenic materials, there is a strong chance these are occupational diseases.”

While acknowledging the existence of the handbook, Samsung denied any possibility that its workers were exposed to harmful chemicals. A public relations official for Samsung Electronics said the environmental notebook was provided to those who completed certification training for handling chemicals and explained, “There are double and triple safety measures in place at the semiconductor plant to prevent any leakage of chemicals, so workers are not being exposed to them.”

But an individual identified by the surname Kim who quit a job as an engineer at the Giheung plant said, “Because employees are forced to compete for productivity, there was no choice but to disable the interlock safety device, which is unnecessary and slows down the work rate.” Kim added, “They disabled dozens of interlocks on average each day, exempting only those absolutely fatal to safety.”

Another engineer who worked for more than a decade at the Giheung plant said, “When I was working there, there were quite a number of organic solvent and gas leak incidents.”

Original article in Hangyoreh: http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/421106.html

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