hankyoreh

May 9. (by Kim Bong-kyu

By Yoo Shin-jae, Song Chae Kyung-hwa and Heo Jae-hyun, staff reporters

The “rage of the underdogs” is showing no signs of dying down even though Namyang Dairy made a public apology on May 9 for an incident in which an employee used abusive language and bullying tactics with a client storeowner.

At a press conference, Namyang executives promised to compensate the victim and prevent similar incidents from occurring, in an attempt to head off the growing controversy over aggressive sales tactics, which made Namyang synonymous with business tyranny.

But the same day, 150 organizations representing civil society, professional groups, and the self-employed announced a boycott of Namyang products, with around six million small business owners taking part beginning May 20. The groups, which included the Save Local Stores Alliance, Voter Action, and the Korean Civil Society Alliance, questioned the sincerity of Namyang’s apology and demanded that its managers and major shareholders assume responsibility for compensating the victims to protect the rights of working class-level small business owners suffering the abuses of large corporations. They are also planning to circulate materials calling on the public to join the boycott.

Many of the groups’ members are owners of neighborhood convenience stores, restaurants, and karaoke bars. Franchise owners for the country’s three major convenience stores chains - CU, 7-Eleven, and GS25 - joined the boycott on May 8.

A group calling itself the “Association of Namyang Dairy Franchise Victims” held a press conference on May 9 with the National Retailers’ Association, National Convenience Store Owners’ Association, and the Nongshim Special Contract Store Association to demand a “genuine apology” to franchise owners rather than an apology to the public.

In particular, they demanded an apology to storeowners for illegal actions such as forced product purchases, support for collective bargaining to ensure that no similar incidents occur in the future, and serious compensation for victimized storeowners.

They are also joining the group MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society to pursue litigation on behalf of franchise owners victimized by illegal actions by Namyang Dairy.

The reason even small business groups without any direct connection to Namyang Dairy are taking part in the boycott appears to be an eruption of pent-up rage from fighting more general abuses by big business. Since last year, groups have been demanding that credit card companies reduce their transaction fees, waging campaigns to regulate and limit the presence of super-supermarkets, protesting parent company requirements for 24-hour operation of convenience stores and excessive penalties for noncompliance, and calling for restrictions on corporate-owned restaurants and bakeries.

As many of these activities ended up off with legal amendments and institutional improvement, analysts said the determined boycott of Namyang Dairy could also generate results.

Han Kwi-young, a senior analyst with the Hankyoreh Social Policy Institute, said, “This incident touched off a simultaneous outpouring of built-up anger and indignation from the economically vulnerable.”

Meanwhile, civil society and politicians on both sides of the aisle are working on legislation inspired by the Namyang incident. Saenuri Party (NFP) lawmaker Rhee Chong-hoon and others are preparing an amendment to the Fair Trading Act aimed at rooting out unfair tactics used by parent companies when dealing with their client storeowners. Democratic United Party lawmakers Lee Jong-kul and Min Byung-doo are pushing to create new legislation to protect storeowners. Civic groups, including People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, also plan to request legislation to promote sales organization fairness.

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