Slant-eyed Dalmatians

Saturday morning, sun, coffee, Dalmatia, and Slobodna Dalmacija. Almost a perfect start to the day. However, the first thing that caught my eye was the headline ‘You will work 365 days in three shifts for a Korean salary.’ This threatening and sinister undertone did not fit at all with the previously described beginning. The headline, of course, referred to the unfortunate workers in the shipyard, and what it offers them is Korean, among other things, shipbuilding giant Samsung. One of the largest Korean shipyards, although they have not officially commented on the matter, is now reportedly interested in Brodosplit or at least BSO as a smaller split morsel. The conditions are in the headline.

I don’t know why, but I immediately understood ‘for a Korean salary’ as ‘for a handful of rice.’ It is a common belief that Koreans, like the Chinese, are cheap labor compared to expensive Europeans and that this is the key to their economic, in this case, shipbuilding boom. Since the text did not specify what ‘Korean salary’ means, I tried to find the answer myself. Figures of 100, 200 dollars a month were swirling in my head, which is often mentioned as the pay in the Far East, although it seemed to me at the same time not only unreasonable but also quite ridiculous in this context. In Croatia, the unemployment benefit is almost higher.

Searching for any relevant data on the internet, I found the annual report of the European Association of Shipbuilders, which states that in 2007, the average salary of workers in Croatian shipyards was 750 dollars a month, while in Korean shipyards it was 1400 dollars a month! I looked twice. China, however, confirms the thesis of cheap labor as salaries there are 375 dollars in Shanghai and only 200 dollars a month in the interior of China. South Korea was a country of extremely cheap labor until 1990, but today the hourly wage has almost reached the levels of prices in Western Europe or Japan.

So, not only will there not be Korean salaries, but Croatian shipyard workers will be lucky if their salary is half of the Korean one and they keep their job. So far, union representatives have not commented on ‘Korean salaries,’ but they immediately stated that the first part of the headline from Slobodna would not pass for a simple reason. In Croatia, there is a Labor Law that prescribes how many hours are worked per week, how many days of annual leave there are, we also know the institute of sick leave, and we certainly have holidays.

Therefore, Koreans are out from the start. Although I think it is more of a tendentious headline than that any serious businessman would utter the stated demands. Unless he knows that in the country where he plans to operate, its laws are respected. Koreans will give up on the alleged purchase much sooner due to their own problems, not because of ‘expensive’ workers who do not want to work from 0-24. Due to the global crisis and the decline in world trade, Korean shipyards are now operating at 60 percent capacity and are probably in the biggest crisis since their existence.

However, even in the clash of mentalities, everything could fall apart. Is it possible for the Korean mentality to thrive in the heart of a Split (or some other Croatian) shipyard? Hardly, unless these Dalmatians become slant-eyed. Dalmatians, like all Mediterraneans, love an ‘easy-going style’ (which their continental compatriots sometimes misinterpret as laziness), and they also love to grumble… A commentator on the web, supposedly knowledgeable about the functioning of Korean shipyards, says: ‘There is no chance that their mentality, way, and understanding of work in the shipyard will thrive in our shipyards! No chance. Namely, there you have to work and be quiet, work and be quiet. There is no salary for which our man is capable of that.’

The only thing that is, unfortunately, one hundred percent proven is that we do not know and do not want to manage shipyards properly (like not only Koreans, Chinese, Japanese but also many Europeans). Moreover, the EU no longer allows us to do so. For themselves and their shipyards, primarily. Therefore, if Koreans want to buy our shipyards under reasonable conditions, and the Labor Law protects workers, it would be possible to work for a Croatian salary. ‘I would work for any salary, let alone for a Korean one!’ summed up the entire story in one sentence an unemployed person from Split the day after the shocking information was published that Samsung would not pay higher salaries in Croatia than it does in South Korea.