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영어

Labor dispute became a national subject to be resolved right after the inauguration of President Noh, Moo-Hyon in 2003. A few cases including Doosan Heavy Industry and Korail showed strong unions' militancy in strikes while companies and the government seemed to be in a defensive position at collective bargaining table. This lead to the reconsideration of national competitiveness in global era. Many well-known reports on national competitiveness revealed that Korea's position is ranked lower because of current militant industrial relations system. With unchanging stubborn management approach to collective bargaining, increasing industrial unions, and changing industry structure, a new paradigm in industrial relations seem to be long way to reach. Moreover, the government's labor-friendly approach, large wage and working condition gaps among workers, and the lack of neutral labor specialist make more difficult to keep Korea's current national competitiveness. To retain the national competitiveness, the following ideas are suggestedthe government's approach with neutrality and less interference to collective bargaining process and systematic protection of contingent workers; companies' increasing effort to enhance the capability in collective bargaining; unions's role and responsibility in the community, and training and developing capable labor specialists.