CINA

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Yesterday(8.30) in central Seoul:

MTU - for the first time in its history - staged a protest rally as a legal, officially recognized labour union!!!

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And today, nearly one month later...

MTU, S. Korea's first migrant workers’ union Thursday received a permit to legally form a labor union from the government after a monthlong(25 days) sit-in struggle...

...in front of Seoul Regional Ministry of Employment and Labour office demanding the long-overdue authorization. “We are very happy to receive the permit to eventually form the union,” Nazmul Hossain, secretary-general of the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants’ Trade Union, told The Korea Herald(KH). “Our weeks-long efforts seem to have paid off,” he said right after the union was officially registered at around 11:30 a.m.(KST)... The full KH article you can read here, and reports in Korean you'll get here and here!

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SINCE ONE WEEK: MTU's sit-in struggle(background info you'll get here) in front of Seoul Regional Ministry of Employment and Labour...

Related images, depicting the current state(incl. solidarity) of the sit-in struggle...

...you'll get here.

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Yesterday's (bourgeois)Korea Times reported the following:

When the Supreme Court last month recognized illegal immigrants' right to belong to a trade union, Park Jin-woo, deputy secretary general of the nation's first migrant workers' union, believed the hurdle to being recognized was cleared.

But he soon faced another obstacle because labor authorities have refused to register the Migrants' Trade Union (MTU) officially.

The MTU applied for the registration earlier this month following the historic top court ruling on June 25 that came a decade after the union launched the suit in 2005.

But the Ministry of Employment and Labor rejected the application...(the entire piece you can read here)

So, during yesterday's press conference...

...MTU activists announced that they're ready to fight back and started a sit-in struggle in front of Seoul Regional Ministry of Employment and Labour...

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Yesterday(4.27): One of the three 'top stories' published by the bourgeois...

Some 200 migrant workers staged a protest in central Seoul, Sunday, calling on the government to give them more labor rights.

A protest rally on May Day would have been more symbolic, but the migrant workers, who are largely from Southeast Asia, "had to do it today because they can't take the day off like most Korean workers do," said Udaya Rai, leader of the Migrants' Trade Union (MTU), an organization which is not recognized by the government, despite its 10 years of existence...(the full article you can read here/Korean report, incl. some pics you'll get here)

KCTU reported(the Korean version you'll get here) y'day the following:

Migrant workers, who cannot take day off on Mayday staged an early May-day Rally. Migrants’ Trade Union(MTU) and many other migrants organizations hosted <Migrant Workers Mayday> in Jong-gak, Seoul  on April 26. 

“Regardless of nationality, migrant workers in Korea will be united under the banner of trade union. Korean government should stop repression of migrant workers and review their policy on migration.” UdayaRai, President of MTU said. 

Choe Jong-jin, first vice president of KCTU delivered solidarity message. “KCTU successfully organised a general strike on April 24 and will continue the struggle for decent life for all. Today we are here together to celebrate the May day in advance and we have to organize our colleagues at workplaces in a struggle for labour rights, human rights and decent life for all migrant workers.”

Participants took a moment of silence to pray for Nepal and extend wishes for safe rescue and recovery, receiving the shocking and heartbreak news of earthquake. 

After the rally, MTU members took the streets in central Seoul...

...and later held... 

...an event celebrating the 10th anniversary of the union’s establishment.

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Ten years ago(more info you'll get here)...

But MTU is now waiting for 10 years to be recognized(by the S. Korean "authorities") as an legal labor union, the Hankyoreh newspaper wrote about three weeks ago(the full article you can read here)...

MTU's first representative body, elected ten years ago(2005.4.24)... But just a short while later:

one by one has been arrested and deported!

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