CINA

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1.) It seems that the Wednesday's crackdown attack against migrant workers in Maseok/Namyangju (see my contribution from y'day) is not only aimed on "reducing the number of illegal migrants" (according to the Ministry of 'Justice').. I think there is something much more important behind it!
   The main aim of the LMB gov't are "activities of illegal migrants — including forming a union and protesting to have their immigration status legalized and participating in political protests.." The main goal is the MTU and its destruction, once and for all - as soon as possible!!
   And finally its simply a primitive attempt (by the gov't) to take revenge for the activities of migrant workers in S.K. "as they have unionized and are starting to demand legalization of their status" (as JoongAng Ilbo quoted today a Mo'J' official).

2.) An editorial in today's Hankyoreh demanded:

Stop the crackdowns on migrant workers 

Another indiscriminate crackdown on unregistered migrant workers was started again. The day before yesterday, the Ministry of Justice and police arrested some 130 migrant workers in Gyeonggi Province’s Namyangju City and Yeoncheon County. This brutal crackdown was aimed at achieving tangible results as part of an internal target to arrest and expel some 20,000 unregistered migrant workers by the end of this year.

Some said this crackdown was like a military operation. When police officers sealed off a small street, blocking a group of migrant workers, immigration officials from the Justice Ministry arrested them (*). It is inhumane and goes against human rights. This particular approach is highly likely to cause accidents or injuries. In January, an ethnic Korean migrant worker from China died after falling off an eight-story building to avoid detention during a similar crackdown. In April, a Bangladeshi worker was seriously injured after falling off a three-story building. During the crackdown two days ago, five migrant workers were wounded, including a Cameroonian worker whose ankle was broken. Such a fox hunt, which could cause the death of a worker, should be stopped immediately.

Undocumented migrant workers, estimated to total some 220,000 people in South Korea, lose their legal status as a result of the government’s deplorable policy. Authorities ban migrant workers from moving to other factories, despite the fact that they receive far lower wages than Korean workers. Just when they get used to their work, the work permit system requires that they return to their nations. Unless the government revises the work permit system and discriminatory wage structure, it will be impossible to reduce the number of undocumented migrant workers. With those fundamental problems continually ignored, strengthening the crackdown can’t fix things.

It is time to change our fundamental view of migrant workers. Regardless of their legal status, migrant workers contribute to the society in many ways. They help small and medium-sized businesses, which are struggling with the economic malaise, as well as the areas where they live, by stimulating their local economies. People have the right to live where they want. Undocumented migrant workers should be given legal status, not expelled.

 
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_editorial/321805.html

* Almost the same tactics they used in their permanent attempts to arrest us during our (ETU-MB, MSSC) protest rallies/demonstrations between 2002 and 2005...

3.) The conservative/reactionary JoongAng Ilbo published today following article:

Illegal workers injured in Gyeonggi crackdown

Police and the immigration office arrested over 100 illegal immigrants in Namyangju and Yeoncheon in Gyeonggi Province in an aggressive crackdown that is being criticized by human rights groups.

According to the Ministry of Justice, 280 Korea Immigration Service and police officers raided the Maseok industrial park in Namyangju and an industrial area in Yeoncheon County on Wednesday morning. It was the biggest clampdown on illegal migrant workers since President Lee Myung-bak took office.

After surrounding the area so the workers could not escape, the officials entered the factories and dormitories and began checking passports.

A migrant worker from Cameroon tried to escape over a wall but fell and fractured his ankle. Four other workers were also injured.

Those arrested will be sent to a detention center for foreigners and then deported.

“The migrant workers were chased like rabbits and some were injured as they tried to escape,” said Lee Young, a Catholic priest and a senior member of the Joint Committee with Migrants in Korea. “Even a mother with a five-year-old daughter was arrested.”

The Justice Ministry, however, is determined to continue such crackdowns. “There are 700 illegal migrant workers in Maseok industrial park and 200 in Yeoncheon,” it told the press. “We will take stern measures against illegal workers, who are violating the law.”

The crackdown was conducted as part of a plan to reduce the number of illegal workers here. The ministry plans to cut the number to 200,000 from the current 220,000 in a bid to reduce the illegal portion of foreigners in Korea to 10 percent from the current 19.3 percent by 2012.

The ministry said the illegal worker situation has reached a boiling point, as they have unionized and are starting to demand legalization of their status.

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2897347

Related article:
☞ Declaration of War - LMB Gov't vs. Migrant Workers

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Yesterday (11.13) the E.Land strike has been finished and Hankyoreh reported today following:

After 510 days, E.Land union signs off on a deal

 
Sense of solidarity united regular and irregular workers(*), some of whom prepare for new struggles as others prepare to move on 
 
“Day 510 of the strike. It was very tough. It feels good now that it’s finished, but I think some bitterness will remain in one corner of my heart for a long time.”

A shadow briefly fell over the face of E.Land Irregular Workers’ Union President Kim Kyung-wook, 39, as he explained the circumstances of the strike’s end in a steady, clear voice while sitting in a meeting room in the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions in Seoul’s Yeongdeung-po on Thursday afternoon.

That morning, Hwang Seon-yeong, acting head of the World Cup branch, cried all the way back after finishing the signing ceremony for a labor-management agreement with Samsung Tesco at a Home Plus in Seoul’s Siheung-dong neighborhood. Hwang said this was because she felt bad about other union members who could not return to work even though the strike was over. The atmosphere at the general meeting of union members Tuesday, where the provisional agreement plan was passed with 87 percent agreement, was also glum. They were promised a prohibition on additional outsourcing and guarantees for the hiring of temporary workers as regular workers, but 12 union leaders, including Kim, were not reinstated following the company’s refusal. Kim said, “I think people who know how we’ve fought so far will sufficiently understand” how they were unable to achieve their demands for reinstatement. He recognized the inevitability of some sacrifice in attaining results from the long struggle for temporary workers, including the blocking of additional outsourcing. He also said that a determination that “we have to return to work strong” before the striking ranks grew more tired also played a part. Once numbering 600, the striking union members recently dwindled to 180.

“That we’ve made it this far is a victory for the older female union members,” the union leaders agreed. When they began their sit-down strike at the Sangam-dong Homever on June 30 of last year, one day before enforcement of the irregular workers’ law, in response to the E.Land Group’s outsourcing of calculation duties and cancellation of contracts, nobody expected that the battle would last for more than 500 days. “We planned for two days and one night, but the union members went 20 days, saying, ‘We can’t leave, nothing’s been resolved.’ It was the memories of struggle we made together then that pulled me through 500 days,” said Hong Yoon-gyeong, the union’s director. Hundreds of union members were taken away by police or charged and indicted, faced with a lawsuit for compensatory damages close to 30 billion won, and suffered from livelihood difficulties, but they did not back down.

The E.Land struggle is expected to go down as a “beautiful example of solidarity between regular workers and temporary workers,” in which regular worker union leaders dedicated themselves to the struggle of irregular workers. Kim Kyung-wook said, “If regular workers don’t take the initiative, it’s difficult for temporary workers to make their own individual union and fight that way.” Vice President Lee Nam-shin was fired and donated his 70 million won in severance pay for the costs of the struggle, and Kim led the strike even as his two sons were receiving treatment after being diagnosed with possible developmental disorders.

The union is to tear down its strike tent in front of the World Cup Home Plus at 7:00 Friday evening and hold one last “cultural festival” for the struggle. It is expected that they will continue the “battle for reinstatement” with other individuals fired by the E.Land Group who are not affiliated with Homever.

 
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/321800.html
 

Related article:
☞ E.Land Management, Labor Reach Accord (K. Times, 11.13)

* PS:

Please don't forget that the striking E.Land workers were also supporting/joining the struggle of MTU!!!