President Lee Jae-myung on the 17th said, "If the power imbalance between large corporations and subcontractors, dealers, and corporations dependent on transactions with specific corporations becomes clear, then under the name of competition, the law of the jungle takes hold and ultimately induces inefficiency and market failure," adding, "Only when they can negotiate collectively and, in extreme cases, take collective action will the balance of power be right. That is the role of the government."
On the morning of the 17th in Sejong, at the Government Sejong Convention Center, President Lee received a work report from Minister Han Seong-sook of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and said, "It is a global phenomenon, but Korea's so-called gap-eul relationship and polarization are particularly severe. A fair market order and the capitalist system function only when power is equal."
President Lee said, "We need to fundamentally change our thinking," adding, "Until now, it was a situation we fundamentally could not even assume, but in the case of corporations, in principle, collective acts or acts of solidarity and group bargaining are prohibited by the Fair Trade Act." He went on to say, "This has become a situation that in effect forces and all but encourages the strong to exploit the weak and engage in unfair transactions."
He also mentioned the Great Depression in the United States in the past. President Lee said, "Until the early 1900s, when workers formed unions or took collective action, even the death penalty was carried out under charges such as rioting, rebellion, or insurrection," adding, "That was one of the causes of the Great Depression." He also said, "There is a line of reasoning that powerful capitalists colluded and monopolized to oppress weak workers, so income distribution did not occur properly, the market died, and the Great Depression eventually arrived."
President Lee said, "The way the United States overcame this was by granting workers the right to organize and to take collective action and even protecting them, which became a cause of the 50-year long boom," adding, "Of course, war was also one cause, but I think now may be such a time for Korea." He continued, "Socially, an ecosystem has formed in which a small number of powerful corporations, global corporations, and an overwhelming majority dependent on them coexist," adding, "The powerful cannot restrain their own power. We need to open the way for small and midsize companies, franchisees, and dealers to unite and organize."