President Yoon Vows to Go After KCTU After They Hold Illegal Overnight Protest
I don’t think the KCTU is going to win any public sympathy by keeping people up all night with their protests:
A Cabinet meeting led by President Yoon Suk Yeol is held at the presidential office in Seoul on May 23, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
President Yoon Suk Yeol slammed a major labor group Tuesday for its overnight street rally last week, saying its actions infringed on people’s freedoms, disturbed the public order and will not be tolerated by the people.
Yoon made the remark during a Cabinet meeting, referring to a rally staged by the Korean Construction Workers’ Union in protest of the government’s labor policies from Tuesday to Wednesday.
An estimated 25,000 union members took part in the rally in downtown Seoul, causing massive traffic congestion and leading to some 80 noise complaints being filed with the police.
The union falls under the umbrella Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).
“Our Constitution guarantees the freedom of assembly and demonstration, and as president, I, too, have respected this,” Yoon said.
“However, guaranteeing the freedom of assembly and demonstration does not mean infringements on another person’s freedoms and basic rights, or acts disturbing the public order, are justified.”
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Remember, this is the same man (Yoon) who wanted to force Koreans to work a maximum of 69 hours per week, against critical labor laws that are designed to help protect worker’s rights. He wants Koreans to drop dead from overwork and late-night drinking sessions held by their ugly middle-aged bosses. And then he has the bright idea to boost birth rates by importing slave labor from SEA while giving them no minimum wage protection, as well as a scheme to burn through tax dollars to give moms, $1000 a month for having a baby. If you want to raise the birth rates, force companies to give fair vacation and rest days for their workers, treat them as human beings and not robots, and stop with these crazy schemes like exploiting SEA countries for cheap labor. Idiot.
The govenment has no business limiting my working hours.
I work an average of 74 hours/week.
I do this becasue my work is meaningful, gives me life satisfaction, and allows me to get paid for what I consider hobbies.
Plus I get to work with amazing equipment, experience unique situations, travel to interesting places a couple times a year, solve the problems of other people (where success is to my credit and failure is still their problem).
There are many ways to “protect the worker” that doesn’t require controlling the worker.
If one really wants to raise birth rates and wages, ban most women from most of the workforce. The labor demand remains the same, but supply cut by nearlt half. The women would be under significant pressure to marry and the men would be making enough to support a family. That’s how it used to be in most nations before the 50s. Now only upper middle class can afford the luxury of stay at home moms.
Grayblack, that sounds good but… it controls the worker.
People should have the freedom to get rich or starve or do something in-between.
But this avoids the real issue.
Does Korea need more babies?
Do we need to cover more farmland in concrete and dump more sewage in the rivers?
Many of the current jobs will be done by AI and robots. Any nation that bases their success on industries that require more workers is setting themselves up for failure.
Korea needs to stop thinking in terms of the pyramid scheme of more babies and start thinking of how to keep old people useful longer and better care for them when they are not. Korea needs to push to automate the jobs that can be automated and free up/retrain workers to do the jobs that cannot.
Korea needs 20 million productive people and 30 million productive robots to compete in the coming world… while meeting all the fake green targets to keep the politics tidy… and maintaining true sustainability for food, water, and energy.