The HMM land workers' union stated regarding the transfer of the HMM headquarters, which President Lee Jae-myung presented as a campaign pledge, that it "strongly opposes the forced transfer of the headquarters to Busan and declares that it will respond with strong struggles if the hurried transfer is pursued, urging the withdrawal of the transfer plan."
The union strongly urged to "immediately stop the political violence that significantly undermines the autonomy and independence of listed companies," revealing its position through a statement on this day.
President Lee stated during a visit to Busan on the 1st that "the government's equity in HMM exceeds 70%" and that if the transfer is made a government policy, he would just have to proceed with it if the workers do not agree until the end.
The union indicated that "the regional transfer of corporations should be a matter considered in terms of management efficiency and securing competitiveness," adding that "forcing private enterprises to transfer simply because the major shareholder is a government agency undermines the stability of the community of employees and their families settled in the metropolitan area and seriously infringes on the autonomy of corporate management."
It further mentioned reasons for opposing the transfer, such as ▲decreased management efficiency ▲unavoidable core personnel departures ▲violation of member rights ▲decreased domestic and international trust and concerns about cooperation in global shipping alliances ▲concerns over conflicts with legal and policy standards ▲concerns about the abuse of power.
The union also stated that "if the major shareholder is a government institution, the priority should be to recover public funds as soon as possible and support those funds to more needy corporations, which is the way to save corporations and should be the priority to revitalize the national economy through efficient resource allocation, even though it is being misused in the wrong direction."
It stated, "It cannot be justified under any circumstances that a president-elect of Korea, who emphasizes that the people are sovereign and asks to use him as that tool, conducts politics that oppresses a minority of citizens, and such contradictory behavior cannot be anything but hypocritical."
The union emphasized that "if the transfer is in terms of developing the Arctic routes, it doesn’t necessarily have to be only in Busan to prepare for it, and there may be ways to establish collaborative organizations in Busan," urging that the voices of shipping professionals among the employees should be sufficiently reflected rather than pursuing a forced transfer leveraging the government’s equity advantage.