Tag: KCTU

It looks like the KCTU trucker protest has been a failure for them:

The trucker strike is over 16 days after it started, a majority of union members voting to go back to work, and some just dispersing.  
   
In votes held at 16 locations nationwide, 62 percent of the 3,574 that cast ballots agreed to end the strike.  
   
The decisive climb down came a day after the government said it would order more truckers back to work, extending the legally binding orders to steel and petrochemical truckers. Cement truckers received back-to-work orders last week, and all but one complied or indicated the intent to do so. (…….)   

“We decided not to ask the opinion of our union members as asking the members to vote on whether to continue to strike is an attempt by leadership to avoid accountability and pass that responsibility to the members,” a Busan union official said. “The general strike didn’t end up with the results that we expected was because of the Yoon Suk-yeol government breaking its promise, oppression and anti-labor policies.”    
   
Truckers went into strike on Nov. 24. Cargo Truckers Solidarity, the trucker union under the militant Korea Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), failed to rally public support amid concerns over the weakening economy and several reports of violence directed at  non-union truck drivers.    
   
The strikers were also swayed by the heavy penalties of the back-to-work order. They could face up to three years in jail and up to 30 million won in fines for not complying. Threats to end certain government subsidies were also made. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but I think the threats the KCTU was making against trucker drivers trying to go to work really soured the public on the protests.

I don’t think this is a good analogy to compare truckers trying to get higher wages with the mafia state in North Korea:

President Yoon Suk-yeol has likened the ongoing truckers strike to North Korea’s nuclear threats, saying the government should respond sternly with principles like it does to protect the people from Pyongyang’s repeated actions of menace.

“If we had pursued (consistent) North Korea policies based on the principle of nuclear intolerance, we wouldn’t be facing North Korea’s nuclear threat as we do now,” he was quoted as saying by multiple officials, according to Yonhap News Agency on Monday.

“The vicious cycle will repeat if we give in to (their) illegal activities and violence,” he said, stressing union leadership should be sternly punished for blocking members from returning to work.

Korea Herald

What I can agree with is that the KCTU based on their past activities is sympathetic to the North Korean regime:

His party, the People Power Party, went further, claiming the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the umbrella group initiating the ongoing strike, “represents the interest of the North Korean regime.”

Park Jung-ha, a senior spokesperson of the People Power Party, accused the KCTU of taking orders from North Korea to initiate anti-US and anti-government struggles, denouncing that it should change its name to “Minrochong,” a North Korean way of referring to Minnochong, by which the KCTU is known in Korean.

Here is what the truckers are protesting about:

The truckers union has been on a general strike since Nov. 24, saying the government has failed to keep up its end of the bargain to continue the safe trucking freight rate system that both sides had agreed on in June to end an eight-day strike at the time. The safe trucking freight rate system is a measure that guarantees minimum cargo rates for truck drivers to prevent dangerous driving and overwork. It also imposes fines on shippers who pay less than the minimum rate. It was introduced as a three-year system in 2020 and expires at the end of this year.

I am supportive of higher pay for truck drivers, however what I don’t support is unions threatening and assaulting other truck drivers to prevent them from going to work.

With the KCTU behind these protests I don’t know if these truckers are actually striking for improved pay or to crater the ROK economy because someone from the Korean right is President:

President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered his ministers, Sunday, to make preparations to expand executive orders to striking truckers in the refining and steel industries, with the government vowing to mobilize a maximum number of police to crack down on illegal protests by the unionized truckers.

“The government will not compromise with any forces that collectively resort to illegal acts and violence, and will hold them accountable for each of their infractions,” Yoon said during a ministerial meeting on the truckers’ strike. “Otherwise, damage stemming from chronic illegal strikes will be repeated in the future.”

Yoon added, “The government should crack down on these illegal acts and take stern measures by mobilizing the full administrative forces. … Also, ministers should prepare to expand the executive order to truckers who are involved in the refining and steel industries.”

The comments came after a strike by the Cargo Truckers Solidarity (CTS) stretched on for the 11th day as of Sunday. The CTS has been refusing to transport cargo since Nov. 24, demanding a permanent guarantee of a minimum freight rate by the government. 

The president signed an executive order last week to get unionized truckers to return to work. The strike, involving 2,500 truckers transporting mostly cement products, caused significant damage to the country’s construction industry. Losses have also been reported in the refining and steel industries. (……)

Referring to a nationwide strike by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) scheduled on Tuesday as “politically motivated,” Yoon ordered his ministers to crack down on illegal acts by “mobilizing the full administrative forces.”

Having more than 1 million members, the KCTU is one of Korea’s largest labor unions. It is also the umbrella organization of the CTS and plans to stage the nationwide strike on Tuesday to support the truckers.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Yoon administration has a good argument that this is politically motivated because why didn’t the KCTU conduct this strike when Moon Jae-in was president? Yoon has only been president for a few months and now they launch their strike?

The KCTU might as well as just say they get their marching orders from Pyongyang:

 Representatives of South Korea’s largest trade unions are warning that Ulchi Freedom Shield, the largest military exercise by the U.S. and South Korea in five years, runs counter to their members’ interests.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions together claim more than 2 million members working in government, schools, public transportation and the automotive and food industries.

Their street demonstrations against the large-scale drills have been frequent sights outside the presidential office in Seoul and U.S. bases like Camp Humphreys since the start of Ulchi Freedom Shield on Aug. 22.

“If a war breaks out, those who will suffer from the war are our people: workers and laborers,” Lee Jihyun, spokeswoman for the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, told Stars and Stripes by phone Thursday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I find it interesting that not once has the KCTU held a major rally to protest North Korea’s various provocations, missile launches, or nuclear tests. However the ROK holds defensive drills with the U.S. after suspending them for five years for nothing in return and they have a problem with that.

It looks like the KCTU has immunity to coronavirus prevention measures put in place across South Korea. The next time any organization wants to hold a large gathering I guess they can just call it a KCTU protest and they will be okay:

The protesters affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) poured onto the streets in downtown en masse around 1:30 p.m. and began marching toward Seodaemun Station, holding flags and banners calling for labor rights.

Some of them scuffled with police trying to prevent them from moving to the rally site.

Police mobilized about 12,000 personnel and set up fences and bus walls in central Seoul to prevent the rally.

The strike was held despite the government’s call for restraint amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unionized members called for guaranteeing workers’ rights and ensuring better working conditions, as they sought to bring labor issues to the forefront in the run-up to the 2022 presidential elections.You can read more at the link.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the KCTU claims 27,000 protesters showed up.

I guess we will see if the KCTU gets bashed like Korean conservatives were after a rally last August by the Korean media and government:

At least three protesters who took part in the latest massive rally organized by a major umbrella labor group have tested positive for COVID-19, health authorities said Saturday, sparking concerns about potential further infections amid spiking virus cases.

A woman in her 50s was confirmed Friday to be infected with the virus after attending the street rally held by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) in central Seoul on July 3, and two more protesters tested positive Saturday.

Around 8,000 members of the KCTU participated in the rally to demand a revision to the labor act, despite authorities’ repeated call to cancel it amid the pandemic.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.