Here is an inner left wing fight over who should be able to appoint the chief of the Industrial Bank of Korea, the Blue House or the labor unions:
Protests outside the state-run Industrial Bank of Korea are expected to intensify, with the union’s fight against the top-down appointment of CEO Yoon Jong-won gaining support from powerful national labor associations in recent weeks.
The Federation of Korean Trade Unions, one of the two largest umbrella labor organizations here, announced Wednesday that it was joining the IBK unionists in protesting what they see as excessive government meddling in the organization’s personnel affairs.
The new leader of the FKTU, Kim Dong-myung, visited the IBK headquarters in central Seoul to announce the organization’s participation and vowed to continue until the workers’ demands were met. The FKTU had around 930,000 members as of the end of 2018, according to data published by the Ministry of Employment and Labor in December.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which has a membership of more than 960,000, announced it was joining the fight earlier this month.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link.
The KCTU fresh after getting their leader released from jail is now out trying to increase their ranks by protesting to get contract workers designated as regular employees at the schools:
School workers across the country joined the first-ever general strike by public sector contract employees Wednesday, leaving thousands of children without lunches.
Around 2,500 contract workers at elementary, middle and high schools, which included bus drivers, cafeteria cooks and janitors, took part in rallies across Seoul on Wednesday calling for an increase in their basic incomes and an elevation of their status to workers on regular payrolls.
The biggest was held in Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, where around 40,000 contract workers gathered, according to the rally’s organizers. The Labor Ministry estimated the number of attendees at around 26,000.
The strike and rallies are set to continue until Friday.
This week’s rallies, organized by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) – an umbrella organization representing around one million members nationwide – are supposed to draw an estimated 100,000 contract workers in the public sector, with around half of them working at around 6,000 schools across Korea.
Joong Ang Ilbo
You can read more at the link.
I find it interesting that the Moon administration allows journalists that print facts to be arrested and languish in jail, but union allies that break the law they allow to go free:
Kim Myeong-hwan, the leader of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, a militant labor umbrella group, was released on bail Thursday, a week after being arrested on charges of masterminding assaults on police during outdoor rallies.
The Seoul Southern District Court approved Kim’s release on a bail of 100 million won ($86,360) but attached a condition under which he should only stay in his residence.
Kim was also ordered to obtain court approval before moving out of his residence or going on an overseas trip and to comply with a summons from the court.
The same court issued an arrest warrant last Friday for Kim, who was accused of overseeing violent illegal acts during KCTU members’ four protest rallies in front of the National Assembly compound on May 21 last year, as well as March 27 and April 2 and 3 this year.
During the protest rallies, labor activists knocked down parts of the fence surrounding the National Assembly in Seoul’s Yeouido, assaulted police officers, destroyed police equipment and attempted to force their way into the compound illegally to block the passage of labor bills, including those calling for extending statutory flextime from three to six months to minimize side effects of the government’s mandatory 52-hour workweek policy.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link, but the KCTU who is well known for their violence, pro-Kim regime stance, and anti-Americanism vowed to launch massive protests against the Moon administration if Kim was not released. Sure enough Kim is released while journalists languish in jail.
You would think with such a discrepancy the international media would be all over this, but very few are reporting on this.
The Moon administration must be really upset about the criticism they are facing from the KCTU, a major leftwing ally to arrest their leader like this:
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) has pledged an all-out struggle against the government, following the arrest of its Chairman Kim Myeong-hwan, last Friday.
The arrest and the militant umbrella union’s response signal yet another low point in the already strained ties between labor and the Moon Jae-in administration. The latter had hoped for talks with the labor sector to settle various labor issues such as the ratification of key conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and a decision on next year’s minimum wage.
Kim, former leader of the Korean Railway Workers’ Union, was charged with overseeing “illegal” KCTU protests in front of the National Assembly in Seoul in May last year and earlier this year. During the rallies, labor activists clashed with police officers, tearing down fences and plastic shields to get inside the assembly compound to stop anti-labor bills.
Three others in the hardline union were arrested on similar charges recently. The clampdown and arrests of union leaders are hardly novel but they reveal how quickly ties can unravel between the labor sector and President Moon, who promised liberal and worker-friendly reforms when he came to power in May 2017.
The KCTU immediately lashed out at the arrest, saying Kim could not be held responsible for incidents of violence between protesters and police.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link, but the KCTU is upset that President Moon has not kept his promise to further increase the minimum wage. The steep increases in the minimum wage have already increased unemployment which the KCTU apparently is not concerned about.
The KCTU is acting like a bunch of spoiled little kids again:
In a democracy, violence is strictly forbidden. When people’s lives and a nation’s security are endangered, the government can exercise state violence — in a limited way. Yet in Korea, even when labor union violence exceeds a permissible level, the government sits on its hands without taking any action to punish it.
Joong Ang Ilbo
On Wednesday, union members of the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) in Geoje, South Gyeongsang — a local chapter of the militant umbrella Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) — occupied the office of Mayor Byun Kwang-young and turned violent to protest the government’s selling of the insolvent shipbuilding company to Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), one of its competitors.
The union members threw out couches, tables and documents, and plastered the office walls with leaflets and stickers reading “No to the government-enforced merger!” and “We cannot accept the merger with our rival!” What makes us dumbfounded is the attitude of Mayor Byun and city officials, both of who simply looked on with folded arms.
The unionists raided the mayor’s office on the grounds that he did not clearly express opposition to the sale. Last August, the government-owned Korea Development Bank (KDB) decided to hand over its entire 55.7-percent stake in DSME to HHI. DSME has so far been bailed out with 13 trillion won ($11.5 billion) of government funding.
You can read more at the link, but could you imagine what would happen if someone raided the Mayor’s office like this of a medium sized city in the US? The SWAT team would probably be called in.
Since the KCTU knows the Moon administration is in charge they have been emboldened to do things like this because they know they can get away with it with little to no repercussions.
Metal workers union members (under the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions) beat company exec b/c the firm was negotiating w another labor union. Police blocked by 30 or so unionists, waits while beating occurs for 40 minutes. Beaters threaten exec's family too. https://t.co/nZDGXZP5W9
— Tara O (@DrTaraO) November 28, 2018
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) has been emboldened ever since the Korean left was able to impeach President Park. So them protesting the US Navy personnel in Busan is not surprising:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=tCJ6cS6xVHM
Pictures of an anti-U.S. protest rally in South Korea spread online, causing concern ahead of U.S.President Donald Trump’s state visit to the country next month.
The rally was led by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), the country’s second-largest umbrella trade union. Near a Busan hotel where the U.S. Navy held a party to celebrate its 242-year history Oct. 14, protesters chanted messages like “U.S. troops go home!”
Since then, photos and a video of their protest have been shared by thousands of people on social media, including U.S. sailors and their families.
In their propaganda pamphlet to the sailors, they said, “Koreans despise dotard Trump. We also abhor you, his servants. It is because you are a war monster.”
A 35-second video, which is believed to have been filmed by a U.S. sailor on the same day, shows a Korean woman screaming and cursing at U.S. soldiers.
The KCTU, which has carried out anti-U.S. protests before, also criticized local police on its Facebook and Twitter accounts for protecting the sailors from protesters.
The pictures, video and the KCTU’s messages aroused anger among many Americans as well as Koreans. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link.
