CINA

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Tomorrow afternoon (5 p.m.) there will be trial in the case of the Vietnamese migrant workers who went on strike at Incheon New Port construction site. The trial will be held in Incheon’s Regional Court (Jung-gu Unseo-dong).

Kyonghyang Shinmun (6.03) wrote the following article about the case:

Vietnamese Migrant Laborers Who Went on Strike Demanding to Be Allowed to Eat Properly

Two days ago, the barbarism of Korean society was revealed in front of Incheon District Court.

At a press conference, about 20 members of Incheon-area labor and civic groups reported the absurd reality in which prosecutors demanded the most severe sentence of three years in jail for 10 Vietnamese migrant laborers because they led a strike; the Vietnamese were unable to eat properly despite working 12 hours a day.

Vietnamese workers enter an auditorium of the Seongdong-gu Office, Seoul, in a queue, to perform their traditional dance to celebrate 'The Foreign Laborers' Day' on May 18, 2008. That the Vietnamese laborers in Incheon, who went on a strike to just get proper food, but were iron-fisted by the Korean prosecutors show how barbaric Korean society still is towards foreign migratory laborers.
 

The laborers were tried on charges of holding an illegal strike and obstruction of business, with the construction company and prosecutors joining forces regarding two six-day survival strikes, in July of last year and January of this year, held by 180 Vietnamese laborers at the construction site of a container substructure at Incheon New Port.

 
Korean society's response to the very human demands of migrant laborers was thoroughly inhuman. The story of these Vietnamese migrant laborers unprecedentedly going on strike is terrible. In a word, the issue was food.

According to the Korea Migrant Human Rights Center, the roughly 180 Vietnamese laborers worked at the construction site on the basis of a 12 hour-day-and-night shifts of 90 men each, and received three free meals.

The company, however, notified them that they would take from their salary 8,000 won a day, 240,000 won a month, as the price of two of the meals, arguing that the laborers didn't work from 40 minutes before their meal time.

To these laborers, who make slightly more than 1.5 million a month working 12 hours a day without Sundays off at an hourly wage of 4,110 won, 240,000 won in deductions for food was a major burden.

Moreover, compared to the high cost of the meals, the food quality was terrible. When the workers went on strike about this last July, the company fired 21 workers and in retaliation paid the remaining workers salaries with one hour deducted from their 12 hour work days. In January, they therefore launched a second strike.

Whereas the company, which used food to harass the laborers, came under no sanction at all, the iron fist was brought down on the Vietnamese laborers in the name of the law, who had appealed that they be allowed to eat properly and rest at least on Sundays.

The "food strike" of the Vietnamese laborers was truly shocking. Discrimination against migrant laborers is nothing new, but this instance was just too much. That we live "under the same sky" (i.e., in the same space) with migrant laborers, who must eat what they are given and cannot cry out in pain when they are trod upon, is terrible.

The root of the problem can be found in the fact that while the Constitution guarantees the so-called Three Labor Rights and bans discrimination on the basis of sex, nationality and skin color, there is a policy that refuses to recognize these for migrant laborers.

This hypocritical migrant labor policy that brings in laborers but fails to recognize their labor rights is turning Korea into a nation without even a minimum of civility towards human beings.

Through their food strike, the Vietnamese migrant laborers are exposing the barbarism that still lurks in Korean society.

http://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?code=790101&artid=201106031353037&medid=enkh

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From today’s Kyunghyang Shinmun:

A Burned-Down Shantytown near Rich Gangnamgu Area

One resident looks for something among the ashes of a burned-down shanty town Gaepo 4 dong, Gangnamgu, Seoul, because of a fire started by a Kim, third-grader at a nearby elementary school.

 According to the police, Kim started a fire by a lighter on wooden chopsticks for fun, while riding on a bicycle. But the fire grew bigger when the chopsticks were placed on a styrofoam, which he could not extinguish.

 This shanty town is composed of 135 households of the urban poor. Out of these, 85 households were burned because of this boy's playful fire-setting. The 189 residents make their living by collecting recyclable things coming from a rich neighboring high-rise buildings.

 While urban redevelopment started in this area in February, the Gangnamgu Office imposed 50 million to 150 million won of compensatory fine per household for their illegal occupation of the land.

 The residents, who are urban poor, have lived here for 30 years since they were forcibly moved from other areas in December of 1981. With the compensatory fine imposed, they cannot move to any place. The wish of the residents is just to stay and live where they have been.

 The life of the urban poor in the vicinity of a rich Gangnamgu neighborhood is so vulnerable as to be totally demolished by a small boy's play with fire.

http://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201106141409457&code=710100

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Last Thursday's Kyunghyang Shinmun had the following article:

Noodle Restaurant 'Duriban' Reopens

Agreement between tenant couple and construction

company ends 531-day struggle

"It's been hard for a long time but I'm glad it's been resolved. I think this day has come because of the help we've had from so many people."

Ahn Jong-nyeo, 53, owner of kalguksu (noodle) restaurant Duriban and symbol of resistance to indiscriminate urban development in Seoul's Hongdae(Hongik University) area, looked as if she was about to cry. Today, however, hers were tears not of anger but of deep emotion.

On June 8, at Mapo-gu Office, 531 days after the beginning of Duriban's struggle, a committee representing Duriban and construction contractor Namjeon DNC signed an "agreement on the resolution of the Duriban demolition problem."

At a gathering attended by officials fro Mapo-gu Office and Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, representatives of both sides stamped their seals onto the agreement, which stipulated that Duriban would be enabled to resume business in a location similar to its existing area. Duriban will thus now be able to reopen in the Hongdae area.

Duriban underwent forced demolition on Christmas Eve of 2009. In 2005, the contractor offered Ahn, who had been doing business there, 3 million won in compensation for relocation. This sum was woefully inadequate even for staying alive, let alone setting up a business anywhere else.

Duriban's site was not entitled to protection under the relevant law on urban and residential environment because it was not a public redevelopment zone but managed by a civilian operator. The next day, Ahn and her husband Yoo Che-lim, 51, who had been driven out onto the street, entered Duriban and began occupying it.

After that, people supporting Duriban began gathering one by one at the site of the occupation. It played host to all kinds of concerts and documentary screenings, as well as candlelit services.

Performances by artists resisting "rampant development" drew in local residents, while politicians also began to take interest. The electricity was cut off, but the number of people willing to protect Duriban increased. Duriban was christened "Little Yongsan."

The resolution of this incident has been accompanied by predictions that Duriban will become a milestone in the quest to secure rights for tenants in commercial properties.

"Until now, the custom has been to ignore the residency rights of business tenants and go ahead with forcible demolition," says Kim Nam-geun, a lawyer who represents evictees in demolition cases. "This will remain as a precedent that shows that development must take place in a way that guarantees residential and survival rights within communities."

"It has been impossible for individual tenants to resist huge construction companies and assert their rights," said Lee Ju-won, director of the group Nanumgwa Mirae ("Sharing and Future").

"In the future too, tenants will have to join forces with local residents and society. The scope of compensation will have to be increased to make business tenants, who are unable to receive proper compensation in case of redevelopment, legally eligible to be compensated."

http://english.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?code=710100&artid=201106091617087&medid=enkh

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No comment... (^^)

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Yesterday the Duriban Sit-in Collective had their final meeting with the "development" company (Namjeon D&C, a subcontractor of the notorious GS/the former LG Construction Mafia) plus some representatives of Seoul's Mapo District Office... and their negotiation resulted in an "almost complete success", according to activists who were involved in the 531 days sit-in struggle(*) to resist the intially announced evection order.

 
The "conflicting parties", i.e. the Duriban Collective and the "development" company(Namjeon D&C) agreed that...
-> Namjeon D&C will pay for the complete compensation and all penalties which Duriban is supposed to pay
-> Namjeon D&C will cancel all "legal cases"
-> the compensation is including financial loss Duriban has lost while they couldn't work for long time
-> but finally Duriban must move out

According to some progressive, independent news reports (such as NewsCham, 6.08) this is the first case of successful negotiation related to a struggle against eviction...
 

* Related previous contributions you can check out here, here, here and here!

 

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Int'l Petition urging that the 10 Vietnamese Migrant Workers be found Not Guilty and Released (effective 2011.6.07)

Recently, 10 Vietnamese migrant workers working in South Korea were arrested, detained and brought to trial. The 10 individuals had been among 200 Vietnamese workers employed to construct the substructure of a container wharf at the Incheon New Port last year. The Prosecutor's Office has charged them with several crimes including obstruction of business, group violence, mob assault and assault with a deadly weapon.

In addition, the prosecution is claiming that the Vietnamese migrant workers carried out an illegal strike, through which they caused significant losses to the company that employed them.

 
In reality, however, these workers faced subhuman treatment and were subjected to forced labor on the Incheon New Port construction site. They were not allowed to rest on Sundays despite the fact that the South Korean Labor Standards Act guarantees workers one day of a week. They were forced to work in 12-hour shifts, with one running during the day and the other during the night. All the while they receiving only minimum wage. In addition, they were forced to pay for meals despite the fact that their employer had originally promised that meals would be provided. Even worse, management, claiming that they did not work hard enough, began deducting an hour worth of wages from their pay. These actions constitute severe violations of the Labor Standard Act and violation of the workers' employment contract. When the workers protested, however, management responded by telling them they would be fired or, "reported to the Ministry of Labor and deported."

For workers to refuse their labor in the face of such unfair conditions is completely justified. And, indeed, the Incheon New Port workers responded with a strike. Regardless of the technical legality or illegality of this collective action, it must be recognized that refusing to provide labor when management is in violation of the employment contract is a completely justified act. As such, the prosecution's indictment is blatantly unjust.

In its letter of indictment the prosecution claims that the workers who were arrested had led the strike and used threats and force to make other workers participate. It has become clear in the course of the trial. However, that some of the workers arrested had, in fact, worked at the construction site for less than a week and were not even familiar with their duties there. Given this fact we cannot help but doubt the credibility of the prosecution's indictment. Far from what the prosecution is claiming, these workers were pushed into two rounds of spontaneous action by the subhuman conditions under which they were forced to work.

The prosecution's accusation of "group violence" is also highly doubtful. We believe that the prosecution has exaggerated this charge in order to create a basis for calling the group action "illegal".

All of the Vietnamese workers involved in this incident had come to Korea under the Employment Permit System (EPS). The South Korean government claims that the EPS protects the labor rights of migrant workers in full. This case shows, however, that the labor rights of migrant workers in South Korea are actually completely disregarded. What is more, the conditions faced by the Incheon New Port workers are not at all unique. They are similar to the conditions faced by the majority of migrant workers in South Korea.

If these workers are found guilty of the charges brought against them, it will be a direct demonstration of just how unequal and unjust the South Korean government and South Korean society's treatment of migrant workers is. We sincerely hope that these workers will be found not guilty and freed so they can return to their lives as

common workers for the sake of their futures and their families in Vietnam. If these workers are found guilty they will all be subject to forcible deportation under the Immigration Control Act. We fervently hope that their employer's cruel treatment and the prosecution's trumped-up charges will not led to the horrible consequence of turning this young workers into law-breakers.

In solidarity with our comrades,

Edre Olalia,President, International Association of People's Lawyers (IAPL) & Secretary General, National Unuion of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL), Philippines

Dorinda Moreno, Fuerza Mundial / FM Global & Hitec Aztec Communications, Elders of 4 Colors 4 Directions & U.S. Liaison Secretariat, International Tribunal of Conscience/TICPM

Comisión Jurídica del Tribunal Internacional de Conciencia de los Pueblos en Movimiento (becoming a permanent forum for Migration and Displacement) & May Day United, Outreach (Mexico and beyond)

Camilo Perez Bustillo, Law Professor and Lead Attorney, International Tribunal of Conscience/TICPM/Comisión Jurídica del Tribunal Internacional de Conciencia de los Pueblos en Movimiento

Chito Quijano, International League of Peoples Struggles,Auditor,Los Angeles CA

John Parker, International Action Center,West Coast Coordinator,Los Angeles, CA USA

Nikole Cababa, AnakBayan LA,Long Beach, CA, United States

Tim Ly, Chinese Progressive Association,Lead Organizer,San Francisco, CA, United States

Kuusela Hilo, BAYAN USA,Vice Chairperson,Los Angeles, CA, US

Aurora Victoria David,Anakbayan Silicon Valley,Chairperson,Palo Alto, CA, United States

Nguyen Pham,Stanford University,Student Stanford, CA, United States

Sandry Le,Stanford, CA

Teresa Nguyen,Stanford, CA, United States

Paul Valen,Anakbayan SD,San Diego, CA United States

Stacy Villalobos,Stanford Immigrant Rights Project,Stanford, CA, United States

Diana Huynh,Stanford, CA, US

Nati Carrera,SCIC,Los Angeles, CA

Arianna Wassmann,Stanford, CA, United States

Leilani Albano,Los Angeles, CA, United States

Jessica Antonio Bayan USA,Regional Coordinator,San Jose, CA, United States

Geline Evangelista,Filipino Migrant Center,Board Member, Carson, CA, United States

Aldric U.,Stanford, CA, United States

Julian Jaravata,Anakbayan Silicon Valley,Stanford, CA

Aracely Mondragon,Stanford, CA, United States

Anh Truong,Stanford, CA, United States

Joe Hemschoot,Palo Alto, CA, United States

Donna Wallach,Justice for Palestinians,Founder San Josè, CA, United States of North America

wendy wu,san francisco, CA, United States

Rosylin Dean,Women's International League for Peace and Freedom,San Jose CA

Hong Ho,Stanford, CA

Tiffany Basa,Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines,San Francisco, CA, USA

Ellen Le,Stanford Vietnamese Student Association,Cupertino, CA

Apollo Victoria,Habi Arts,Los Angeles, CA, United States

Raul Anorve,Los Angeles, CA. United States

Joi Barrios-Leblanc,Berkeley, CA

Irma Bajar,Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment-Gabriela USA,Chairperson,Brooklyn, New York

Bernadette Ellorin,BAYAN USA,Chairperson,New York, NY, United States

Dianne Saichek,San Jose, CA, U.S.

Jan Tokumaru,Los Angeles, CA, USA

Annie Sayo,NAFCON Northern CA, USA,Regional Coordinator,Bay Area, California

Van-Anh Nguyen,San Jose, CA, United States

junya,asia

alex tom,oakland, CA, USA

Sandie Richards,Board of Church and Society, California-Pacific Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church Chairperson,Los Angeles, CA USA

Aquilina Versoza,Pilipino Workers Center,Executive Director,Los Angeles, CA United States

Arlene Rodrigo,Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment,Cultural Director,New York, NY

Jennifer Gutierrez,United Methodist Church, California-Pacific Conference,Director of Urban Ministry,Los Angeles, CA, United States

LOIS ABUGHO,GABRIELLA USA,Member,Queens, NY, USA

Vic and Barby Ulmer,our developing world,CO Directors,Saratoga CA United States

Ryan Leano,SanDiwa,San Francisco, CA

Thanh D. Nguyen,Sunnyvale, TX

Valerie Francisco,Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE), GABRIELA USA,Education officer New York, NY, USA

Kris Sankaran,Stanford Asian American Activists,Stanford, CA, United States

Nancy Pham,Winter Park, FL

Nguyen Ngo,Stanford, CA, USA

Michael Tayag,Stanford, CA, United States

Lucia Lin,Los Angeles, CA

Alison Fogarty,Stanford Universtiy,Graduate Student,San Francisco, CA, United States

Lory Nguyen Ishii,Caritas Legal, P.C.,Principal Attorney,Los Angeles, CA, United States

Lolan Sevilla,Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment,Member,Brooklyn, NY, United States

Serenity Nguyen,Fountain Valley, CA, United States

Celina Benitez, SANA, Los Angeles, CA

Related:
☞ SOLIDARITY MESSAGE Migrante International (6.06)

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Vietnamese Migrant Workers Detained and Brought to Trial!

Background

Recently 10 Vietnamese migrant construction workers working in South Korea were arrested, detained and brought to the trial.

The Prosecutor's Office has charged them with several crimes including obstruction of business, group violence, mob assault and assault with a deadly weapon. The prosecution is claiming the Vietnamese migrant workers carried out an illegal strike. In its letter of indictment the prosecution claims that the workers who were arrested had led the strike and used threats and force to make other workers participate.
 

All those arrested are documented migrant workers who entered South Korea under the Employment Permit System (EPS). If they are convicted, they are highly likely to face deportation under the Immigration Control Act.
 

The 10 individuals had been among 200 Vietnamese workers employed to construct the substructure of a container wharf at the Incheon New Port last year.
 

Cruel working conditions

->  KRW 4,110/hour wage (minimum wage).
->  12-hour shifts from 7:00 to 19:00 (Lunch break: 12:00-13:00). The company almost always ran two shifts, one from 7:00 to 19:00 and one from 19:00 to 7:00. 
->  Work on Saturday and Sunday even though the employment contract stipulated a Monday to Friday work week. 
->  Only 1 meal a day (lunch) provided free of charge. The cost of breakfast and lunch (KRW 240,000 a month) was deducted from wages. For this reason, the major demand during the strike was the provision of three meals a day. The company offered breakfast and dinner for free from April to May, 2010. But it notified the workers it would offer only lunch for free beginning in July. Many workers who had worked since April staged a walkout and refused to work.
 

The 1st Strike: July 22 to 25, 2010
 

Beginning at 7 o’clock in the morning on the 22th of July, 2010, roughly two hundred Vietnamese workers went on a walkout. The walkout continued until 7 o’clock in the evening on the 25th of July, 2010.
 

The workers made the following demands:
->  That they be provided three meals a day, free of charge.
->  That the not be forced to work at night against their will.
->  That they be allowed to have friends visit them in company-provided living quarters.
->  That they be allowed to have food, drink and alcohol in their living quarters.
 

*The company argued that the strike caused losses worth KRW 1 billon. It said it was forced to hired local workers and had to paid extra to rent equipment for an extended period of time.

 
The 2nd Strike: January 9 to 10, 2010

Most of the Vietnamese workers went on a walkout against beginning on January 9,, 2011. In response, the company changed its policy. It reduced recognized work hours from 12 to 11 hours (The workers worked for 12 hours from 7:00 to 19:00pm, with a lunch break from 12:00 to 1:00pm). The company had previously recognized 12 working hours including 4 hours of overtime work.

 
*The company argued the second strike caused losses worth KRW 109 million.
 

Arrests and trial
 

The 10 Vietnamese migrants continued to be employed and worked after the strike.
 

Some of those who were arrested had only begun to work in July 2010. As such, they were not in the condition to lead the first strike.
 

The 10 workers were arrested in March and April 2011, and were charged with interfering with the business, group violence, and mob assault with a deadly weapon.
 

At a hearing on May 26, the prosecution asked that the workers be given prison sentences of 3 years to 2 of the workers, 1 year and 6 months to 1 worker, 1 year to 6 workers and 1 year suspended for 2 years to 1 worker.
 

The next hearing in the case will be on June 9.

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Yesterday's Korea Herald published the following - in parts 'slightly'(^^) baised - report:

Stores biggest losers in Insa-dong War 
Confrontation between city, street vendors may escalate

Normally a street that contains a harmonious balance of both tranquility and bustling excitement, Insa-dong can leave you with a sense of what Korea might have been.

But with the recent crackdown on street vendors, many foreigners are left wondering why the streets look like a warzone and stores are without customers.

After deciding to create a street without cars, and to expand the space for pedestrians at Insa-dong, the Jongno District Office is attempting to relocate the street vendors, who are technically illegal, to designated sectors off the main road.

But street vendors were unanimously favored by foreigners visiting Insa-dong, despite district officials insisting that foreigners do not want them there.

“I like it (street vendors) because they make the food right in front of you and its fun, and they are certainly cheap,” said Ben Whittaker who was visiting from Australia.

And according to the district office, foreigners are their main target demographic for Insa-dong.

“We absolutely enjoy the street stalls, and what they have here at the moment is a nice balance between street stalls and stores,” said Thomas Gervay from Australia.

According to Kim Keun-ki, leader of an association of the street vendors, this is the only thing he can do for a living, saying that street vendors do not have the luxury of choice.
 

“Elementary school education was the only education I got, so I can’t even submit a job application because no one wants to hire an elementary school grad,” said Kim who owns a Korean taffy, or yeot stall.

“On a good day, I probably only make about 20,000 won ($18).”

And what the vendors are most upset about is that they are being relocated from the busiest areas of Insa-dong to an area that the vendors call “the grave,” according to Kim.

The district’s recent crackdown on street stalls has only led to violence on the streets, broken stalls, injured vendors, district officials and foreigners passing by, and empty stores.

“Because of this (protest) Insa-dong is in disarray right now, we have less customers coming in because the surrounding area has become so rough, said a store owner who declined to give her name.

“For every day there is violence in our streets, we lose that many customers,” said a former street vendor turned store owner.

“The people who are truly affected by all of this are the store owners who simply lose customers because of the fights between the district office and the street vendors,” said another store owner in an alleyway at Insa-dong.

However, despite the popularity of street stalls among foreigners, to most store owners the recent string of violence is just another problem that street vendors bring to Insa-dong.

“It’s completely unreasonable that the street vendors are still protesting, despite the district’s attempt to look the other way and accommodate them,” said the former street vendor.

“We have to pay expensive key money deposits, rent and various taxes that really add up too, but vendors do not pay a single won to the government for the public land that they use,” said a calligraphy store owner.

And store owners feel further victimized by the vendors, often portrayed in the media as people struggling to make ends meet, when according to the former street vendor, most vendors easily make more than 100,000 won a day.

“Many of them have a small fortune,” said the store owner who declined to give his name.

“Some operate several stalls that have part-time hires working them in different locations,” he said, who still keeps close ties with many of the street vendors at Insa-dong.

According to multiple sources, the street vendor’s alliance at Insa-dong, is not just a means to band together to face the district, but it is also an organization that rules the cultural street with an iron fist.

“I’ve seen people set up a little street stall in Insa-dong, only to be harassed by street vendors in the alliance, eventually leading to violence,” said a store owner.

According to the store owner, the key money deposit for public spaces on the street can cost up to 50 million won, and those that do not pay, face the consequences.

“When I ran my own stall, I got permission from the store owner I was selling in front of, but the alliance still came and tried to stop me from doing business,” said the former stall owner.

“We even landed in the police stations a couple times because things got violent between us,” he said.

The district office has found itself in a dilemma, after declaring Insa-dong street a pedestrian zone, inevitably clashing officials with the vendors.

According to Choi Sung-min director at the district office’s Construction Management Division, the motion to relocate the vendors is to create a friendly walking environment, despite many foreigners agreeing that you can simply walk around them and that it does not cause much hassle.

However, Choi added that the district office is still undergoing talks with the street vendors’ alliance to create a peaceful solution.

http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20110605000146

Related article:
☞ Street vendors heading downhill (K. Times, 6.02)

 

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The Korean Federation of Construction Industry Trade Unions (KFCITU) issued last Thursday the following press release:

We call on the Lee Myung-bak Gov't to Stop the Repression of Vietnamese Migrant Construction Workers!

10 Vietnamese migrant workers were recently imprisoned for having demanded better treatment while working on a construction site at the Incheon New Port last year.

Hyundai Construction was the main company overseeing the construction at this site. Roughly 180 Vietnamese workers working on the site were employed by Taeheung Construction, a subcontractor contracted with Hyundai Construction. These workers were mainly responsible for iron bar work, laying concrete and plastering. They worked for 12 hours at a time on two nighttime shifts. Taeheung Construction had provided three meals a day. Last June, however, the company began deducting 8,000 won a day for two meals, seeking to increase its profits at the workers' expense.

Resenting this bad treatment, the workers began demanding improvements last July. The company, however, threatened them saying, "If you don't work, we will report you to the Ministry of Labor and have you all deported." Further angered, the workers refused to work from July 22 (Thurs.) to July 25 (Sun.) in protest against the company's attitude.

The company did nothing to meet the workers' demands. Instead it reduced the their pay, recognizing only 11 hours of work when they in fact worked for 12. In response, the workers again refused to work from January 9 (Sat.) to Jan. 10 (Sun.), 2011.

We are enraged by the fact that Taeheung Construction felt it could deducted 240,000 won a month for meals fee, when it was only paying the workers minimum wage (4,110 won/hr.).

In March and April, several months after the workers' action, the Gyeonggi Provincial police arrested and imprisoned some of the workers who were, by that time, working at other worksites. The police have plans to make more arrest related to the incident. What is more, the police and Prosecutor's Office are exaggerating the charges, claiming that small skirmishes that occurred during the action and interpersonal conflicts were actually collective acts of violence. These actions demonstrates the authorities' misguided beliefs that migrant workers should quietly follow the company's orders and that any demands they make for better treatment are by nature illegal. The authorities' actions are clearly labor repression as well as violations of human rights and international law.

The ROK Constitution's guarantee of the 3 basic labor rights (right to association, right to collective bargaining and right to strike) applies to all workers regardless of their nationality and race. In addition, both the ILO and the UN have adopted conventions on the rights of migrant workers, which protect equal treatment for all workers.

Instead of perpetrating labor repression against these migrant workers, the South Korean government should punish the company's illegal treatment and human rights violations, which include requiring workers to work excessively long hours and at night, reductions in break times and refusal of a day off once a week.

Hyundai Construction, the main company at the Incheon New Port site, has been bragging about the fact that it recently won a contract to build a Mariott Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam worth 1 billion won. This is particularly offensive arrogance, given that the company should be ashamed of its role in this incident. Hyundai Construction should making improving the conditions at its construction sites its top priority and take responsibly for the unjust imprisonment of the Vietnamese workers.

The Korean Federation of Construction Industry Trade Unions (KFCITU) will fight with other labor, migrants, and human rights organizations to win justice for these Vietnamese migrant workers, who have been the targets of repression and unjust imprisonment. And, we will continue to struggle against the repression of construction workers around the world.

June 2, 2011

Korean Federation of Construction Industry Trade Unions (KFCITU)
Affiliate of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU)

Related reports:
☞ 검찰, 베트남 건설 이주노동자 10명에게 중형 구형 (참세상, 6.01)
☞ “밥 더 달라” 시위·파업한 베트남 노동자 10명 구속 (경향신문, 6.01)
☞ ‘인권논란’ 베트남노동자 오늘 선고공판 (인천신문, 6.02)

 

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