Pacific Oil CompanyIn this case, Pacific Oil Company had established a working relationship with Relient Company to supply the former with vinyl chloride monomer (VCM). The business relationship was on a contractual basis and had begun in 2006 and was coming to a close in December, 2009. However, both firms realized that they had both greatly benefitted from the relationship, and Pacific Oil thought it wise to approach Relient with a proposal to extend the business beyond the expiration of the contract. They thought that they could do this on different terms especially in terms of the price due to the worldwide shortage of VCM, however, the rest of the terms like delivery and the words used in the contract forms would stay put. Relient agreed to this and the contract was extended.
However, Pacific Oil later experienced several threats as several companies had expressed a desire to start the manufacturing of the VCM. They felt that this could have a huge effect on the prices due to presence of competitors. They felt the need to-re-open negotiations with Relient as they had proven to be very reliable clients. A proposal for Pacific Oil to use VCM in production of PVC products also necessitated these talks. This necessitated several negotiations in which both parties were supposed to table their concerns and where they both could come up with suitable solutions to existing problems. Pacific Oil’s main concern was the fluctuating costs which would have lured Relient into buying the product from a favorable supplier.
In 2004, the Government of South Korea and the state governments of South Korea and Japan began negotiating to reopen VCM plants. As a result, the VCM production had been cancelled on 2 October 2004 after the VCM was withdrawn from the market over safety concerns. In a press conference regarding PwC in June 2004, the Minister of State for Labor, Business, Industry and Economic Affairs, Mr Lee Yong-Chun, said: “At the request of our state and Japan, South Korea requested that in 2009, as per the regulations under the Korean Atomic Energy Agency (JAXA), they introduce the VCM. In May 2009 the Government of South Korea submitted a revised proposal for the VCM which has now been incorporated into the VICO plan, according to which the production of VCM on a regular basis shall be halted after the completion of the PwC project.”[citation needed]
By early May, the government had started planning what action the South Korean workers would be taking following their re-introduction in 2004. At this time, a group of South Korean workers had joined together with the others in forming the “Pacific Workers’ Protection Union” to organize all the South Korean South Korean workers in protest against the decision to import the VCM.[12] Some 200 South Korean South Koreans, including seven American union members, were working in the plant.[13]
When the VICO first arrived in South Korea in mid-2007, workers were not allowed adequate food resources, and the plants had to be turned away due to environmental conditions. The company made the VICO’s concerns known in early 2008, and in late 2008 the company initiated a meeting where workers had the right to assembly and petition the local assembly board of the plant which they called the Korean Workers’ Federation (KWD) and the South Korean Ministry of Industry (MOIA).[14] In all these meetings, the workers expressed concern that the VICO would not be able to meet production requirements for such a large, complex project. Workers also expressed concern that if the government allowed it to proceed, then some of these workers might join the protests demanding the workers’ power to refuse to work in the plant.[15]
In December 2008, a joint protest of workers and the local government at the time of the plant’s closure led to the resignation of the workers’ union commander, who received death threats for his anti-union political views. On 1 March 2009, two days after the KWD fired the head of the plant’s main strike, Mr Song Kang-Hsi was killed when a missile hit the factory, leading to the resignation of Chief Executive Park Sang-won.[16] In April 2009 workers again joined the protests in support of workers’ rights.[17] In February 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Forestry announced that its plant would be shut down in the face of further protest from the workers.[18] By early 2010, the protests had subsided and South