33개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
About three weeks ago(5.02) Hankyoreh published the following: Jeon Yeong-soo (left) and Lee Seong-ho...
...on the 21st day of their aerial protest in Ulsan, May 1. The two worked for a subcontractor at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard. The subcontractor went out of business and they lost their jobs.
Last Friday(5.19) hundreds of KMWU activists from Ulsan demonstrated their solidarity with Jeon's and Lee's ongoing sit-in struggle...
Message from KCTU president Han Sang-gyun on occasion of receiving Febe Elisabeth Velasquez Trade Union Award:
On behalf of the 800,000 members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the leadership, delegates and members of FNV.I understand this is your first congress after your merger in creating a powerful and united FNV.
Korea is the only country in the world that is divided after the Cold War. Currently much of the international media coverage has been focused on the heightened military tension fuelled by North Korea’s nuclear program. However, the people of South Korea is more concerned about the growing inequality. Workers are working harder, longer, but they are becoming poorer. This I believe is the reality of working people throughout the world.
The South Korean government has been consistent in advocating a pro-business policy by pushing economic growth. The government espouses this will make the country richer and powerful as well as enrich the lives of working people. However, in reality this policy has made the country heaven for chaebol-conglomerates and hell for workers.
Being on the side of Chaebols and the elite 1%, the government has regarded the KCTU as thorn on its side rather than an equal social partner and one of the pillars of society. The government has equally been consistent in implementing an anti-trade union policy and destroying the fundamental labour rights of workers. To do this the government has mobilised all of its resources and agencies to crack down against workers and trade union rights.
Capitalism which has destroyed genuine democracy and the livelihoods of workers in my country has become a more dangerous and fearful form of dictatorship than the military dictatorships of our past. In this political climate, where we are seen as the enemy of the state, the KCTU could not kowtow to the government just because of fear of trade union repression.
The history of the KCTU is based on struggle for democratic rights, labour rights, and human rights and resistance from attacks from the government and employers. And we have continued to maintain this rich legacy. As a leader of the KCTU and representative of the working class, it is only natural for me to be in the frontline. When I was informed that I was to receive the Febe Elizabeth Velasquez Trade Union Award, as I contemplated in small confines my cell, I was very humbled and to be frank embarrassed.
However, I am honoured to receive this award, as I fully understand that this is given not to myself as an individual, but to the KCTU and our struggle. Most recently, the KCTU was in the front lines where we were the fuse and wick of the candle lit by 17 million people who successfully ousted President Park Geun Hye. In her role as President, she used her power to repress on democracy, labour rights, freedom of the press, and the economic livelihood of workers.
I also accept this award as an encouragement to our further determination in the struggle for a just and equal society where workers’ dignity and rights are respected.
I am convinced that when workers are united, we are stronger, and we will win. I must be frank, there have been times, when I have felt unsure about the future of our trade union movement and like any normal human being, I have trembled with fear confronted by violence and brutality. Yet, in these occasions, the knowledge that there is genuine support and solidarity from the global trade union movement including FNV has given me strength.
In our struggle against neoliberalism, I would like to let you know that we are working to dismantle the tragic consequences one by one in a small country in Northeast Asia.
In South Korea, Lee Jae-yong, vice chair of Samsung and a representative of a major chaebol, Park Geun-hye, the ousted president and myself, President of KCTU are in jail at the same time.
Lee Jae-young and Park Geun-hye may feel like that they are living in the hell every day. But for me, I am grateful and encouraged by the strong determination, commitment, and hard work of my comrades outside fighting and welcoming a new era in South Korea.
In closing, I want to once again express my deepest thanks and congratulations to the leadership and membership of FNV. I would also like to express my thanks to the General Secretaries of all the Global Unions who nominated me for this prestigious award. I will accept this in recognition of the struggle of workers in South Korea.
In solidarity and struggle.
Han Sang-gyun
Chuncheon Detention Centre
Related piece(in Korean) by KCTU(5.08):
☞ 한상균 위원장 ‘페베 엘리자베스 벨라스케스 노동조합상’ 수상
Last Wednesday(5.10) KCTU stated the following: In spite of attempts to stimulate fears that a vote for a progressive candidate would be a ‘void vote’, voters were wise in their choices. The votes gained by the two progressive candidates embody the spirit of the candlelight uprising, which sought fundamental social reform and the eradication of the structural evils sewed by the previous administration, and will serve as pressure on the Moon administration to move forward with reform at the right pace and in the right direction. This means first and foremost reversing the stationing of THAAD...
One day later(5.11) Korea Times wrote that President Moo Jae-in faces a tough diplomatic challenge involving the controversial deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in South Korea... Cheong Seong-chang, a senior research fellow at the Sejong Institute, said, "If the new government concludes that the THAAD deployment here was not a rational decision, it will need to make a drastic decision to cancel the deployment"...
Three days later(5.13)...
Related reports in Korean, depicting last Saturday's "3rd Pan-national Peace Action Day" in Seongju/Soseong-ri, you'll get here and here.
NewsMinTV recorded the entire event... and you can watch it here and here.
Last but not least... here you'll get a report by the Korean Health &Medical Workers' Union, depicting the "3rd Pan-national Peace Action Day"...
The KCTU congratulates Moon Jae-in on his election as president and on the start of the new administration.
A change of ruling party was already expected as a result of the presidential elections, which were brought about by the candlelight uprising. Nonetheless, given all the lowly trickery of the conservative forces, Moon’s election has real meaning.
The Moon Jae-in administration begins with widespread support among the Korean people. It is important to remember, however, that the demand of the 17 million-strong candlelight uprising was not merely for a change in ruling party, but for the creation of a new South Korea.
The Moon administration is now faced with the double task of eradicating the structural evils left over from previous administrations and aggressively pursuing fundamental social reform.
The election is over, yet the passionate hopes of the candlelight uprising continue to burn. For this reason, the KCTU states clearly that while we will support the administration if it moves in the right direction, should it fail to do so, we will not hesitate to criticise it and to make it the target of struggle.
In addition, the KCTU acknowledges the great advances made for progressive politics by Sim Sang-jung, who received the greatest number of votes of any progressive presidential candidate to date, and Kim Seon-dong who completed the race despite being shut out by the media.
In spite of attempts to stimulate fears that a vote for a progressive candidate would be a ‘void vote’, voters were wise in their choices. The votes gained by the two progressive candidates embody the spirit of the candlelight uprising, which sought fundamental social reform and the eradication of the structural evils sewed by the previous administration, and will serve as pressure on the Moon administration to move forward with reform at the right pace and in the right direction.
This means first and foremost reversing the stationing of THAAD, which was pursued by Acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn and National Security Chief Kim Kwan-jin.
In addition, the conservatives’ attempts to use redbaiting and play on national security fears during the elections to reverse the course of history demonstrate that they are still grasping for power. These elements, who still have attachment to Park Geun-hye and seek to erase the candlelight uprising, must be completely eradicated.
There must be no compromise or cooperation with those who collaborated with the Park Geun-hye government or those who had a hand in its evil policies. Any compromise with these forces would not be an effort towards ‘social cohesion’. It would merely be injustice, submission and regression.
An immediate task for the new administration is fundamental reform of the media, police, prosecutor and National Intelligence Service, which are dominated by Park Geun-hye administration collaborators, and the rooting out of corruption among public officials and heads of state-owned enterprises.
The Moon administration must not make the same mistakes as the Participatory Government (Roh Moo-hyun government).
The Participatory Government was unable to control the corruption and greed of the chaebol (corporate) elite, who then came into collaboration with Park Geun-hye. It must also take responsibility for helping to usher in the era of 10 million precarious workers, an issue at the center of the concept of ‘Hell Joseon’.
The negative image of organised labour as a ‘labour aristocracy’, used by the Park administration to justify the complete denial of trade union rights and pursuit of the regressive labour reforms demanded by chaebols heads, and perpetuated without shame by the conservative candidate Hong Jun Pyo, was actually created during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, along with laws that expand precarious employment.
We take note of President Moon’s promise to create a country that respects workers. We will judge the sincerity of his many campaign promises on labour issues by how his labour policies are enacted in the near future. The KCTU and the workers who participated in the candlelight protests must be treated as partners in the creation of a country that respects workers.
Thus, we make the following proposal to the Moon administration: Start by meeting with the KCTU.
Currently, the most urgent labour policy to deal with is that of the minimum wage for 2018, which must be set by the end of June.
There are also many steps to eradicate the negative labour policies of the past administration and carry out positive labour reform that can be taken immediately by administrative authority without legislative procedures.
Furthermore, issues requiring consultation and dialogue with trade unions, such as those related to precarious work, the right to join unions, the guarantee of fundamental labour rights to all workers and the creation of jobs for young people, have accumulated.
If the Moon administration is sincere about carrying on the spirit of the candlelight uprising, it should move quickly in its response to labour issues. In particular it should begin immediately by opening labour-government negotiations as a demonstration of its sincere will to find positive solutions.
We have not forgotten the painful experience of workers under the ‘Participatory Government’.
Furthermore, we note that from the beginning of the struggle for impeachment through to the presidential elections, the Minjoo Party was not always in step with the spirit of the candlelight uprising.
This is the reason our first greeting to the new administration must be strongly worded.
The first six months following the election will be an important period during which the administration will be evaluated on its sincerity and determination to eradicate the problems of the past administration and carrying out social reforms in line with the spirit of the candlelight uprising.
We hope that we will not have to wait long to see the administration’s true face. It is up to the Moon administration to decide.
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
2017.5.10
최근 덧글 목록