CINA

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Here the first stuff from the bourgeois S.K. media about the so-called General Strike by KCTU, starting tomorrow, 12.01. More about it will follow soon.

Semi-official news agency Yonhap today, 11.30:

Violent clashes between police and protesters expected Thursday

Violent clashes between police and protesters are expected Thursday as thousands are set to protest further liberalization of the rice market and discrimination against non-regular workers at a rally in downtown Seoul, the National Police Agency (NPA) said Wednesday.

Nearly 8,000 people are to gather in the district of Daehakro as both a continuing form of protest and a memorial to Jeon Yong-cheol. Jeon was a farmer who died of brain injuries sustained in a recent clash with police during a street protest against opening the rice market.

Umbrella labor groups at odds over non-regular worker issue

South Korea's two umbrella labor groups are on the verge of severing their alliance of more than a year after failing to settle differences over how to best deal with the non-regular worker issue, labor officials said Wednesday.

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU), the more amicable of the two influential labor groups, said that it will go ahead with the submission of a labor law revision bill to a National Assembly panel in December.

In Tuesday's meeting of standing committee members, the federation decided to present the bill independently as opposed to its rival group's push for a general strike scheduled for Thursday.

"It is impossible to leave the non-regular issue in limbo anymore, so we've come up with our own revision bill aimed at satisfying 60 percent to 70 percent of the labor community," a federation official said, asking to remain anonymous.

Another representative umbrella labor group, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), decided Monday to go ahead with a general strike to demand greater labor rights for non-regular workers.

The KCTU said that its nationwide strike will be staged in alliance with trade groups of local farmers and teachers, who are fighting government policies for wider market opening and a new teacher evaluation system, respectively.

"Hope for the improvement of non-regular workers' labor rights
is turning into despair, while the rice-market opening bill passed
the National Assembly last week," said Jeon Jae-hwan, a spokesman for the KCTU.

The Korean Teachers & Education Workers' Union is planning to call a strike in protest against the government-led teacher assessment program, while groups of farmers stage demonstrations almost every day to vent their anger at wider rice market opening.

The KCTU has about 750 affiliated labor unions from across 18 industrial sectors and claims a total membership of about 620,000.

It has been one of the most influential forces in the nation's labor movement over the past decade.

However, it recently lost public confidence as a result of a rise in corruption cases ranging from embezzlement of union funds to bribe-taking in return for job placements.

The FKTU is also struggling in the aftermath of its own corruption scandals.

In October, former FKTU leader Lee Nam-soon was sentenced to one and a half years in prison for receiving bribes from construction companies in return for helping them win a bid to build a union welfare center.

The Ministry of Labor called the planned strike illegal and politically motivated, because it will happen while dialogue is under way between representatives of labor unions and the employers' group on introducing a bill on the rights of non-regular workers.

"It is not a responsible attitude by the labor community to try to have their demands met through physical power rather than dialogue. It should withdraw the strike, which is illegal," Vice Labor Minister Chung Byung-suk said.

Daily newspaper Korea Times, 11.27:

Umbrella labor groups at odds over non-regular worker issue

South Korea's two umbrella labor groups are on the verge of severing their alliance of more than a year after failing to settle differences over how to best deal with the non-regular worker issue, labor officials said Wednesday.

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU), the more amicable of the two influential labor groups, said that it will go ahead with the submission of a labor law revision bill to a National Assembly panel in December.

In Tuesday's meeting of standing committee members, the federation decided to present the bill independently as opposed to its rival group's push for a general strike scheduled for Thursday.

"It is impossible to leave the non-regular issue in limbo anymore, so we've come up with our own revision bill aimed at satisfying 60 percent to 70 percent of the labor community," a federation official said, asking to remain anonymous.

Another representative umbrella labor group, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), decided Monday to go ahead with a general strike to demand greater labor rights for non-regular workers.

The KCTU said that its nationwide strike will be staged in alliance with trade groups of local farmers and teachers, who are fighting government policies for wider market opening and a new teacher evaluation system, respectively.

"Hope for the improvement of non-regular workers' labor rights
is turning into despair, while the rice-market opening bill passed
the National Assembly last week," said Jeon Jae-hwan, a spokesman for the KCTU.

The Korean Teachers & Education Workers' Union is planning to call a strike in protest against the government-led teacher assessment program, while groups of farmers stage demonstrations almost every day to vent their anger at wider rice market opening.

The KCTU has about 750 affiliated labor unions from across 18 industrial sectors and claims a total membership of about 620,000.

It has been one of the most influential forces in the nation's labor movement over the past decade.

However, it recently lost public confidence as a result of a rise in corruption cases ranging from embezzlement of union funds to bribe-taking in return for job placements.

The FKTU is also struggling in the aftermath of its own corruption scandals.

In October, former FKTU leader Lee Nam-soon was sentenced to one and a half years in prison for receiving bribes from construction companies in return for helping them win a bid to build a union welfare center.

The Ministry of Labor called the planned strike illegal and politically motivated, because it will happen while dialogue is under way between representatives of labor unions and the employers' group on introducing a bill on the rights of non-regular workers.

"It is not a responsible attitude by the labor community to try to have their demands met through physical power rather than dialogue. It should withdraw the strike, which is illegal," Vice Labor Minister Chung Byung-suk said.