Yang Kyung-soo, chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), who is on a general strike, is having an interview at the office of the KCTU in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 5th. Senior Reporter Lee Jeong-yong lee312@hani.co.kr
The Korean Confederation of Democratic Trade Unions (KCTU) launched a general strike, saying, “Let’s gather before the remaining four years are over!” and put forward the “resignation of the Yoon Seok-yeol regime that destroys labor, people’s livelihood, democracy, and peace.” For two weeks from July 3rd to 15th, industrial unions under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions will hold a relay-style strike. The Yoon Seok-yeol government announced a tough response, calling it an “illegal political strike,” but the enthusiasm for participation by industry unions is hot. The Hyundai Motors union, which had not participated in the strike for the past five years, also joined. On June 7, the Korean Federation of Trade Unions (FKTU), which declared non-participation in the President’s Economic, Social and Labor Committee, also declared ‘all-out war against the Yoon Seok-yeol regime’ with 10,000 union representatives on June 27. Street rallies are held calling for a minimum wage increase, the suppression of labor corruption, and the crushing of labor oppression, while the leadership continues a tent sit-in in front of the Ministry of Employment and Labor building in Sejong City. The reality is that the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, which represent organized labor in Korea, define the Yoon Seok-yeol government, which has been inaugurated for over a year, as an “anti-labor government” and confront it with a general strike to resign and a declaration of all-out war. Why did they come out on the street? I met Yang Kyung-soo, chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, and Kim Dong-myeong, chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, and asked why. On the 5th, the third day of the general strike of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, I met Chairman Yang Kyung-soo at the office of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions in Jeong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul. Chairman Yang said, “President Yoon Seok-yeol continued an all-out attack over the past year by increasing working hours, denying basic labor rights, and neutralizing unions. If not checked, the regression will accelerate further,” he said.
“President Yoon, as a target to ‘kill and eliminate’ unions”
―Why is there a general strike at this point?
“We put up the title of the general strike as ‘a general strike to destroy labor, people’s livelihood, democracy, and peace, and to oust the Yoon Seok-yeol regime,’ but in fact, during the year of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration, regression has occurred throughout society. In the field of labor, the basic labor rights themselves are being denied. The Yoon Seok-yeol government continues to increase working hours, reform the wage system, mass-produce non-regular workers through the revision of the Dispatch Act, and make consistent attempts to neutralize labor unions through the sectoral worker representation system. It’s an all-out assault on organized labor. In the meantime, the unionization rate has risen moderately, but the government is trying to put the brakes on this and make workers’ lives into atypical and incomplete labor. I went on a general strike with a sense of crisis that if left unattended, the flow could speed up.”
―Isn’t it a little excessive that the resignation of the government, which has only been inaugurated for a year, has been promoted in full swing?
“You can feel that way. But there is a sense of urgency that the current situation cannot be more tolerated. At least, the members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions think that the past year has been so terrible, and they are judging that they cannot live like this for the next four years. There are calls for resignation from religious circles, academia, and civil society.”
―What do you mean by regression?
“People talk about wage freezes, saying that inflation is a problem, but gas and electricity rates, which have the most direct impact on inflation, rise the most. Those who find it difficult to find hope to live through charter fraud commit suicide. By taking advantage of US unilateralism, it undermines national interests and peace on the Korean Peninsula, and now threatens public health with nuclear-contaminated water from Fukushima. In this situation, if the workers do not speak up, they will really die. Moreover, the current time is the trend of preparing for the general election next year.”
―Are you saying that the government is taking a regressive step conscious of the general election?
“Yes. The fate of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration will be decided according to the results of next year’s general election. Depending on the results of the interim evaluation, I think that almost everything will change, whether it be the advance or retreat of the Yoon Seok-yeol regime or the direction of policy after that. People who have been in politics for a long time in the power of the people are also flat on the Yoon Seok-yeol regime, partly because President Yoon has the prosecution on his back, and partly because of the general election. There is an atmosphere that cannot even be raised even if there is the right policy due to the nomination issue. If the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions does not correct the fact that even the existing conservative political forces are succumbing, our society will have no choice but to go through a very extreme regression. Even though fighting for resignation in the early days of the administration is not welcome and burdensome from the KCTU’s point of view, it was judged that it had to be done, so we decided on a ‘general strike to resign’ without disagreement.”
―The resignation of the regime is just a slogan, and questions about its reality are bound to be raised.
“It was the same during the Park Geun-hye administration. She said that no one thought that Park Geun-hye would step down, and at the time, the Saenuri Party held more than a third of the seats, making impeachment procedurally impossible. However, as public opinion increased, the Democratic Party, which did not agree with the impeachment, also proposed an impeachment bill, and the Saenuri Party members also moved. Although we cannot currently draw a legal path for resignation, we are currently in the process of making it with the belief that we can oust the Yoon Seok-yeol regime if public opinion intensifies.”
―Do you think a general strike calling for the resignation of the government can gain support?
“I think it would be accurate to say that I am making an effort to receive support. Since the purpose of the strike is to raise issues about the destruction of labor, people’s livelihood, democracy, and peace by the Yoon Seok-yeol regime, we want to create public sympathy.”
―The government fights back, calling it an illegal political strike. Can you say it’s not an illegal political strike?
“It is the only country in the world where Korean society has made it illegal to strike for political reasons. It is illegal for us to strike through restructuring or layoffs. It is limited to legal strikes only over wages and collective bargaining issues. Politicians define both the lives of workers and the lives of the common people, and I think that the fact that the KCTU, which is recognized as the largest mass organization, can’t talk about the government’s wrong policies is an act of denying citizen democracy.”
―The Hyundai Motors union is participating in a general strike for the first time in five years. How should we accept it?
“At the labor site, the government asks to freeze wages, issue corrective orders for collective agreements, and disclose union accounting data. Because these things come in so strongly, all unions are under the same pressure. In the field, it is judged that normal labor-management relations cannot operate unless the government’s offensive of such labor deterioration is prevented. The Hyundai Motors union was also aware of this situation and joined the strike.”
―What are the specific types of wage collective bargaining in the field?
“Mostly, there is a lot of content that reduces labor union activities. There are also many reductions in welfare benefits. Since the government is behind the scenes, the user side pushes in. You think you have to go down to make it worthwhile. It’s not normal. Labor-management relations and the labor market itself, the government is now disrupting the order.”
―President Yoon’s position is that he will not give in to an “illegal political strike.”
“President Yoon perceives unions as hostile and when workers talk about the right to live, they perceive it as an attack on the regime. I think of it as a target to be killed and eliminated, not a relationship to be discussed, compromised, and coexisted. President Yoon, a former prosecutor, seems to recognize labor unions and workers as punishment targets and social evils that make it difficult and confusing the economy and companies.”
On the 5th, members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) hold up placards for the resignation of the Yoon Seok-Yeol administration at the general strike victory resolution meeting. Senior Reporter Kim Kyung-ho
“Is it the rule of law to destroy the three labor rights?”
―Seok-yeol Yoon What is the biggest problem in the government’s labor policy?
“The biggest problem is that there is no labor policy. In the meantime, several governments have implemented economic policies, corporate policies, and labor policies in parallel, although at different heights. However, the Yoon Seok-yeol government has labor policy as a sub-concept of economic policy and corporate policy. It is a labor policy to ensure corporate profits. That’s why we approach it as if we need to increase our working hours. Because the economic situation is difficult, because the industry is being converted, because of the climate crisis, and even because the labor market is polarized, they say that labor reform is necessary. Is the polarization of the labor market caused by unions? It is because of the problems of irregular workers and unfair trade in prime contractors and subcontractors, and the labor unions that have tried to correct this are blamed, and companies that are actually responsible are given indulgence. They also demonize organized labor by framing it as so-called vested interest unions, aristocratic unions, illegal unions, and even spy unions.”
―Are you saying that the government is doing so with meticulous calculations?
“The transition committee report, the economic policy report, and the report of the Future Labor Market Research Association are all included. I think it is a situation where the government is closely communicating and colluding with companies with a consistent stance.”
―The government insists on labor-management rule of law and labor reform.
“If it is the rule of law, isn’t the rule of law the most principled direction to guarantee the three labor rights guaranteed by the Constitution? However, replacing the union with a labor-management council and splitting it into a sectoral worker representative system is not the rule of law, but the incapacity of the union. The perception of labor itself is a very shallow regime. The prosecution, which currently dominates the presidential office and the government, would be a group that has never thought about labor issues. It seems that such a viewpoint is projected into this government that just beats the union and operates as if the National Security Agency, prosecutors, and police operated as a single governing body by operating countermeasure meetings in each metropolitan city.”
―The joint response of the Korean and Japanese labor unions to the release of nuclear-contaminated water in Japan is also notable.
“Korean and Japanese workers, Japan’s Federation of Trade Unions and Trade Unions, and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions issue a joint statement, and their representatives send a video message, and I send a video message to Japan. Japan is also very urgent, so I can’t come to Korea this time, but I’m discussing plans to visit Korea later. The joint statement was first drafted by Korean and Japanese workers, and we decided to expand it into a joint statement with labor unions in Pacific Rim countries.”
―The revision of Articles 2 and 3 of the Trade Union Act (Yellow Envelope Act) was also requested, but even if the Yellow Envelope Act passes the National Assembly, President Yoon is likely to exercise his veto.
“I don’t think there’s anything we can do about it if the exercise of the right to veto is a fait accompli. The government has no choice but to be burdened when it comes to exercising its veto power. It is not simply a matter of government policy, but it is the result of long-term labor union activities and changed working conditions, so the government needs to be deeply aware of it.”
―The capital side argues that the Yellow Envelope Act will ruin the economy and companies and destroy them.
“Then, all European companies with unionization rates reaching 50-60% and non-regular workers guaranteed bargaining rights should have gone bankrupt. isn’t it? It is said that Germany has an advanced labor-management culture, but the reason why Germany was able to minimize labor-management conflicts is that workers’ bargaining rights are widely guaranteed. Conflicts are reduced because the directors are composed of an equal number of labor and management, and workers intervene in management and make decisions while looking closely at the company situation.”
―Are you saying that President Yoon should accept the Yellow Envelope Act, which was submitted to the plenary session of the National Assembly?
“sure. The Yellow Envelope Act does not prevent provisional seizure of compensation for damages at all, but requires individual consideration, and the same content as the Supreme Court ruling. I’m also under pressure, and it’s really terrible. I came to an empty house, put a ticket on it, and the house is also being auctioned… .”
―What is the reason for the pressurization of the hand boat?
“In the past, I had a high-altitude sit-in because of the issue of non-regular workers at Kia Motors. Since I was the representative (head of the in-house subcontracting branch of the Kia Motors Union of Korea Metal Workers Union), I was responsible for compensating for damages, but things happened that I could not have imagined and seemed to come out of a drama. The whole family is in so much pain. I live with my ex-wife, but when I am alone at home, her wife is very afraid of what to do when they open the door and come in.”
―The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions did not participate in the Economic, Social and Labor Committee (Gyeongsanowi), and even the Federation of Korean Trade Unions jumped out. Wouldn’t it be necessary for the labor world to maintain the framework of dialogue with the government?
“I actively want to. However, it is not recognized as the only social dialogue frame. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions participates in over 60 government committees. It is a symbolic and political organization. Since the Labor and Relations Commission has repeatedly deteriorated in general discussions, at least for workers to enter and discuss it, the government must show a balanced appearance to create a so-called non-sloping playground.”
―What are you specifically asking for?
“The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions is participating in various government committees currently in operation, such as the Health Insurance Policy Deliberation Committee, the Long-term Care Committee, and the National Pension Fund Management Committee. However, with the Yoon Seok-yeol administration, the two major unions began to be excluded even in these places. Then they say that they do not enter the social dialogue organization. Since the transition committee, the KCTU has continuously requested a dialogue table with the government. I even asked for a live discussion with the president. However, the Minister of Labor does not meet the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and is only doing a political show while visiting so-called MZ unions. The MZ union can also have healthy concerns. However, if you want to think about comprehensive labor policies and discuss them with the government, you need to talk to the two major trade union confederations, who have been thinking about and discussing labor policies together for more than 20 years, with accumulated capabilities. It is not the government’s position to discuss it by excluding this and saying that it will only take the symbolism of the representatives of functional groups or small trade unions.”
―You mean to neutralize the two major labor unions by using them as assistants?
“I mean to take that frame. Since the KCTU and the Korean Federation of Trade Unions include workers from a wide variety of industries and ages, I think they can make a comprehensive judgment rather than a policy focusing on a specific industry or age. If it is to become a social dialogue, the attitude of the government must change.”
―President Yoon seems to maintain the stance of hitting the union.
“That’s how we will try to win the general election. However, when the general election is imminent, I believe that the power of the people will also move. If you think you will lose the general election if you go this way, I think it will be an instant for President Yoon to be abandoned. Former President Park Geun-hye was also abandoned by the party. It is highly likely that the same calculation method will work for members of the People’s Power.” Reporter Shin Seung-geun skshin@hani.co.kr
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2023-07-07 22:00:34
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