SEOUL — Armed with a sleeping bag and a kettle, veteran welder Kim Hyung-soo is taking on a $9 billion corporation, spending frigid winter nights holding a round-the-clock, sit-in protest in downtown Seoul.
Since Jan. 7, the 51-year-old has been demanding better pay and conditions in front of the headquarters of Hanwha Ocean, the shipbuilder that owns the yard where he works and that is enjoying a boom in orders. Along with a handful of colleagues, Kim means business: The sit-in follows a three-week hunger strike he staged last month.
