Tag: KCTU

It will be interesting to see if the Korean and international media will trash the KCTU for not following coronavirus restrictions like they did back in August against a conservative rally:

South Korea’s major umbrella labor union pressed ahead with a massive street rally Saturday in central Seoul despite the government’s warning of a stern response.

Around 8,000 members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) gathered in the Jongno district, ignoring the government’s call to cancel the assembly feared to affect the fight against COVID-19. The country is struggling to contain a resurgence of coronavirus cases.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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.