2255개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjNfKXYbnq8
Today's Korea Herald wrote following (oops~ you can believe it or not..):
Labor toughens stance against Lee
A hard-line union group is stepping up its offensive against President-elect Lee Myung-bak after it was recently humiliated by his abrupt cancellation of a meeting he had scheduled with them.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions on Wednesday resumed its activities to support striking unionists at E. Land Group, and reiterated its threat to stage a massive strike over the issue of irregular workers, possibly in the first half of this year.
Its leaders decided to reject Lee's invitation to his inauguration on Feb. 25. They also demanded that a special investigation team summon the president-elect over his alleged involvement in a financial fraud case.
"Six members, including KCTU president Lee Suk-haeng, were invited to the ceremony, but we have decided not to take part, after discussing the matter, and have already reported our decision to the Labor Ministry," said Woo Moon-sook, the spokeswoman of the major labor umbrella group.
This offensive came after Lee indefinitely delayed his planned visit to KCTU's headquarters, which had been scheduled for Tuesday. He abruptly cancelled, citing the KCTU chief's refusal to be questioned by the police regarding his involvement in illegal protests.
The president-elect said he will "not meet anyone or any organization that does not abide by law and order."
Instead, he visited GM Daewoo, which has been involved in no labor strikes over the past five years.
"The most important quality is for the company to trust their employees," said Lee during his visit to the automobile plant.
"The economy isn't looking so bright, but the only way to overcome such a situation is for the management and its labor union to become a whole, to boost the company's competitiveness together ... I hope the company continues to keep its record of no strikes in the future."
President-elect Lee has stressed the importance of law and order, and has emphasized that he will not tolerate illegal and violent strikes or labor activities focused on political issues.
Expecting tougher labor policies from the new government, the KCTU has repeatedly threatened to stage a general strike, as in mobilizing its members in the electricity, gas and transportation workers.
The group has dispatched its members to support E. Land unionists, to stage rallies and to boycott campaigns in front of the retail giant's stores through Sunday.
"We will proceed with the demonstrations until the Lunar New Year holiday, since the government is showing no willingness to protect the laid-off workers at E. Land."
The company fired 900 temporary workers before the protection law concerning irregular workers took full effect last July 1.
Calling on the management to retract its massive dismissal of the contract workers, unionized employees participated in major illegal sit-ins at E.Land's Homever and New Core stores last year.
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2008/02/01/200802010058.asp
Oops~ now I'm complete speechless(^^), because today's JoongAng Ilbo reported following:
It’s 'WAR'!!..
..militant union declares after Lee snub
Umbrella group to target E.Land over worker layoffs
It looks like war is brewing between militant trade unionists and an incoming administration that identifies itself as overtly pro-business.
“Lee Myung-bak’s decision to cancel his meeting with me is a declaration of war against us,” Lee Seok-haeng, chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, told the JoongAng Ilbo yesterday.
Stung by Lee pulling out of a meeting with the union’s leadership, the militant group said the first battleground will be the retail giant E.Land’s policies on non-regular workers.
E.Land has been a choice target for months since the company decided to fire non-regular workers rather than convert their status to permanent under new government labor regulations.
“We have no choice but to counter his [Lee’s] decision in our own way,” Lee Seok-haeng said of the president-elect’s snub. “The first flash bomb will be shot high into the sky from E.Land.”
The rift was aggravated Monday after Lee canceled the planned meeting. Citing the union leader’s unwillingness to cooperate with a police investigation into illegal street rallies staged last year, the president-elect indefinitely delayed the meeting.
The union, which represents more than 750,000 workers, said its efforts to sabotage the operation of E.Land’s Homever, New Core and Kim’s Club outlets nationwide will continue until Sunday.
According to the confederation, up to 200 members will be sent to 62 E.Land outlets to block customers from entering. The plan is expected to hurt the retailer on the eve of the Lunar New Year shopping period.
Chairman Lee yesterday visited the confederation’s Seoul headquarters to encourage members to fight.
“All our actions will be within the framework of law and order,” Kim Dong-wu, a KCTU official in charge of non-regular workforce policy, said yesterday. “Public opinion is favorable to the fired working moms, so the stores can be easily boycotted with only a few protesters standing out front.”
The militant umbrella union will also push forward other scheduled activities. Chairman Lee will visit the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations to seek cooperation from the largest U.S. umbrella union to stop the two countries’ free trade agreement. Lee will also meet with Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, to lobby against the trade accord.
In March, Chairman Lee will visit labor unions around Korea to urge labor unity. In June, the union has already scheduled routine summertime fights against management. “No matter what the president-elect says, we will go our own way as planned,” Lee said...
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2885721
About the background story please read:
☞ President-Elect Cancels Meeting With Union (K. Times, 1.28)
☞ Lee’s cancellation of meeting with KCTU.. (Hankyoreh, 1.29)
☞ Why Won’t the Union Leader Talk to Police? (Chosun Ilbo/"editorial", 1.30)
Today K. Times published in its latest edition following article:
Labor Union Challenges President-Elect (*)
The head of the nation's largest umbrella union has vowed to act sternly to challenge the incoming government's pro-business stance, hinting at massive rallies for the next five years.
Lee Suk-haeng, chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, Thursday rejected the presidential transition team's proposal of forming a four-party commission where management, government, workers and civic groups can meet to solve labor issues.
Lee said that the incoming government is showing no willingness to actually improve the current labor environment. "If they really wanted such a body, then they should have asked for our collaboration ahead of announcing it as an official plan,'' he said, adding that there could be no negotiation in such a process.
However, he said if the new government tries to establish a body that is based on "mutual understanding,'' he would dispatch representatives.
Lee's attitude is attributable to the fact that the President-elect has not yet met union leaders, but had meals with business leaders on several occasions, emphasizing that he would ease the regulations hindering business management.
The President-elect is also infamous among many workers for having said ``the non-permanent workers problem is a systemic one and is inevitable,'' during his campaign. His comments and rather lukewarm attitude toward the workers have brought resistance in the labor sector, observers say.
Lee Suk-haeng, who takes a tough line on the side of labor, threatened protests whenever appropriate. "Under the Roh Moo-hyun government, about 980 members went to prison for our activity, but we are ready to send 9,800 under Lee Myung-bak's,'' he said.
He also said should the government not come up with proper measures toward the union and other labor issues, he will organize massive strikes that could harm the country's international credibility.
"It won't be those you have seen before. We will stop planes and trains and cut the electricity. The French did it, so why can't we?'' he said.
Also, he revealed that the group is planning protests against the free trade agreement between Korea and the United States.
He said he would meet leaders of labor unions in other countries such as the U.S., Canada and Australia to discuss the issue.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/01/117_17141.html
* Well, just let's wait and see what will be happen.. (^^)
Related articles:
☞ Lee MB’s indifference to the labor community (Hankyoreh, 1.11)
☞ "Law and Order" Against Labor Rights..
"..law-and-order top Lee's labor agenda", today's Korea Herald headlined.. It means that the new S.K. gov't will - very likely - choose the way of direct confrontation with the struggling working/oppressed class!
Instead the improvement the labor/human rights, we'll see in the coming years a new and excessive wave of increasing EXPLOITATION & OPPRESSION!! And very likely we'll get almost daily impressions like that:
Bloody state terror against the oppressed class!!
To "prove it", Korea Herald wrote following:
The incoming government's labor policies are expected to prioritize .. the principled enforcement of law, as it aims to build a more liberal, growth-oriented economic system.
During the election campaign, Lee Myung-bak promised to put an end to illegal labor strikes and confrontational industrial relations..
He is also committed to current policies and legislative efforts which aim to make the labor market more flexible and competitive.
His center-right labor polices are likely to face a major test in his early months in office. Labor unions regard the president-elect as trying to weaken their influence, and to sideline key issues related to the conditions of workers...
Unlike the current Roh Moo-hyun administration, which has been criticized for being lenient regarding illegal labor strikes, Lee stresses that he will abide by the law. Lee has targeted labor activities which focus on political issues, as well as violent, illegal labor actions.
"I will put an end to illegal demonstrations, and establish law and order, which should be prioritized for the good of society. Our economy can grow only when our society advances," Lee said during one speech...
His resolve will face a major test within the first half of this year.
Lee Suk-haeng, head of the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, threatened to stage a general strike against his labor policies.
"President-elect Lee (plans to) force sacrifice and pain on workers, in the name of economic revival," he said. He didn't mention the timing and specific issues of such a strike.
"We cannot but assemble our forces, and square off with the next government," he added.
The KCTU spokesperson Woo Mun-suk threatened to mobilize electricity, gas and major transportation workers in the strike.
This will inevitably prompt a fierce conflict with the government, which will enforce a new regulation which requires crucial sectors to maintain an essential minimum workforce...
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2008/01/07/200801070028.asp
Update (01.08):
Well, it seems that the incoming administration now wants to threaten the S.K. working/oppressed class on a daily basis! K. Times, in its latest edition, reported this:
"The coming administration expressed its willingness Tuesday to crack down on unauthorized strikes by unionists..", "The next government is poised to crack down on illegal labor activity..", "..the next government will put an end to illegal demonstrations, and establish law and order"...
Last year the S.K. gov't missed no opportunity to send almost weekly large units of riot cops to oppress strikes and other activities by the working class, in particular against struggling irregular workers.
Now the New Year is "promising" a new era of class struggle with more excesses against the oppressed and exploited classes by the ruling capitalists - now backed by the new reactionary gov't, the Lee Myung-bak administration. Irregular workers, un-documented, and especially unionized (in the MTU) migrant workers, but also struggling street vendors, people who are defending their homes against the construction mafia, etc.. may likely be permanent targets by a new wave of state terror (if there will be no organized mass resistance!!).
12.27: Migrant workers joined one of the latest protests by irregular workers
Today's Korea Times already had to publish following article about the possible near future for large parts of the S.K. working class:
Another Tough Year Waits for Contract Workers
This year will be tougher for those employed on a temporary basis. Braving bone-chilling weather, hundreds of non-permanent workers took to the streets, demanding their companies promote their job status to permanent. But things are working against them. President-elect Lee Myung-bak openly vowed a ``business friendly environment,'' and their requests are feared to be falling on deaf ears.
Seventy non-permanent workers of Koscom, a stock information providing unit of the Korea Exchange, have been demanding secure jobs for more than 100 days. On Dec. 31, they climbed to the top of some high-rise CCTV towers in downtown Seoul to protest their current status.
Several days before, they had their heads shaved to express their anger. Seventy people have been staying in a tent in front of the Korea Exchange building in Yeouido for the past 113 days.
``This is the last thing we can do. We cannot step back nor move forward,'' Kim Yoo-shik, the spokesman for the workers, said Wednesday.
Separately, former female crewmembers of KTX, the Korean bullet train, also set up a tent on New Year's Day to restart their outdoor struggle in front of Seoul Station. They say they are dispatched workers from the state-run Korail, denying the train company's allegation that they were employees of its outsourcing company, which hired them as contract workers.
On Dec. 26, a court ruled that the crewmembers are employees of Korail, but the company is still refusing to hire them directly as permanent workers.
``Most of us are bread earners in our families and we have no other choice than to continue the struggle,'' Park Mal-hee, a member of the union, said.
The unionized workers of E-Land, saw the New Year in at the front of SaRang Community Church in Southern Seoul. The workers have been on strike against the distribution company since July 8 and tried to persuade the pastors to get company Chairman Park Sung-soo, an elder of the church, to resume negotiations and withdraw their dismissal.
However, much to their disappointment it seems very unlikely their request will be accepted. Observers say the change in attitude follows in the wake of Lee Myung-bak, former CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, being elected as the next president.
E-Land sacked an additional 33 leaders of the union and ordered the suspension of another nine workers. The dismissal was delivered via text messages on mobile phones on Dec. 18 through 20, a day before the scheduled negotiations between the management and the union and around the election day.
Former KTX crewmembers also alleged that the railroad company halted negotiations with them on Dec. 24, just several hours before a scheduled meeting. Before the negotiations, the former workers offered stopping the strike on condition of going back to their workplaces as ``two-year-contract workers,'' instead of permanent ones, but the company did not accept their offer, they said.
Prof. Bae Kyue-shik of the Korea Labor Institute said February will be a critical time for them. He expected the protests to end before then, when the new government kicks off. ``There are no clear policies yet announced but the well-known image of Lee may pressure the protestors and they may choose a lesser sacrifice rather than a greater one by lingering on,'' he said.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/01/117_16595.html
IT'S 'CHRISTMAS' TIME(^^)..
..but (hopefully) the struggle goes on!!!
Comrade Masum(left!!), MTU's former General Secretary (abducted 11.27 and forcibly
deported 12.13), on 'Christmas Eve' 2003 during our year long sit-in strike
in Seoul/Myeong-dong Cathedral's compound
Related:
☞ Christmas and migrant workers (MSSC, 2003.12.26)
"Korean Dream", by comrade Yeon Yeong-seok
E-Land Workers Hold Protest (Korea Times, 12.23)
About 150 unionized workers of E-Land held a rally in front of SaRang Community
Church in southern Seoul Saturday, asking the pastors to let the company's
chairman resume negotiations and withdraw dismissal of leaders of the union.
SaRang Church is where the group's Chairman Park Sung-soo is an elder.
The unionists have been on strike since July 8 to protest the company's dismissal
of non-permanent employees.
Recently, the group sacked an additional 33 leaders of the union and ordered the
suspension of another nine workers. The dismissal was delivered via text
messages on mobile phones last Tuesday through Thursday, a day before the
scheduled negotiations between the management and the union.
The workers rushed to the church and asked the senior reverend to recommend
Park resume the talks and withdraw the dismissal, but were rejected. Their
request to rally inside the religious facility was also turned down.
The union plans to continue the protest till their requests are accepted...
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2007/12/117_16009.html
Well, sorry for my thoughts, but I doubt if it makes much sense to appeal - whether it's Christmas time, or not - to one of the most reactionary parts of the S.K. churches..
SaRang(^^ what an euphemism!!) Community Church already tolerated - or supported(??!!) - from the beginning Park Sung-soo's activities (better said: permanent attacks) against the unionized employees of his "shopping empire"!!
For more about y'day's protest:
☞ "우리 일하게 해달라고 말해주세요" (VoP, incl. two videos)
Recent video documentaries about the E-Land Strike by comrade "Hong Gil-dong..":
☞ 12월 6일~7일 홈에버 신도림점 구사대 폭력 (12.08)
☞ "홈에버 포항점 오픈 저지투쟁 영상 3" (12.03)
*****
덧글 목록
관리 메뉴
본문
i'm a member of 'Seoulidarity'. We made this video and another one 'militarism and resistance in s.korea' together.we wanted to make something for the world social forum(26.jan). we are recently focusing on migrant workers and writing on other issues in s. korea.
actually, we've visited your blog linked your blog on our
article! hope we could communicate and make a solidarity.
you can visit www.seoulidarity.net
부가 정보
관리 메뉴
본문
Hi, we are an Asian American group in Seattle that is strongly influenced and inspired by the Korean labor movement, particularly around resistance against US imperialism and neo-liberalism. In fact we are named after the anti-colonial March First Movement in Korea. I would have liked to email this information to someone in your organization/blog, but I couldnt find the information. We are organizing a rally in Seattle this Thurs 4/24, calling for US troops out of South Korea. We are demanding that our university, the University of Washington, pull out any investments from US military contractors supporting the USFK.I am attaching our press release in this post. I hope to be in touch with you all and that perhaps in the future we can build deeper connections in our solidarity organizing. We could also write a post on your blog about the turnout and progress of our campaign if that is possible
Sincerely,
March First Solidarity
Press Advisory: For immediate release 17 April 2008
University of Washington students call for divestment from U.S. Military contractors and the withdrawal of US troops from Korea
Who: University of Washington students and concerned community members
What: Rally to pressure UW to divest from military contractors that support the presence of US troops in Korea
Where: University of Washington, HUB Lawn
When: 12:00pm Thursday, April 24, 2008
Contact: Shemon Salam Tel: +1 734 673 4657 Email: m1solidarity@gmail.com
At 12:00pm on Thursday, April 24, 2008, University of Washington students and concerned community members will rally to demand that UW withdraw any investments it may have in U.S. military contractors that produce items used by the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK).
This rally is part of an ongoing campaign organized by March 1st Solidarity, a new anti-racist group on campus that opposes US imperialism in Asia. On April 7, 2008, March 1st Solidarity formally submitted a proposal demanding divestment. Members of the group believe the university should be a democratic institution where students, staff, faculty, community members, and fellow citizens have the right to make decisions regarding investments, foreign policy, and public ethics. We do not want our tuition and taxes supporting the production of weapons used to maintain US imperialism.
The presence of U.S. troops on the Korean peninsula limits the self-government of the Korean people. Since 1945, the US Forces Korea helped suppress South Korean movements for national reunification and genuine democracy. This resulted in the subjugation of the Korean people to U.S.-backed military dictatorships that lasted until 1987. UW students are rallying because we fear that the USFK could be used today to suppress the struggles of Korean workers and farmers against increased exploitation under the Kor-US Free Trade Agreement.
Today, the USFK is consolidating and relocating its bases in South Korea in order to solidify its military domination across Asia. The USFK is not there to protect the South Korean people; it is there to support the war on terror and the growing US rivalry with China. The Pentagon is redesigning US military bases in Korea to support deployment anywhere in Asia or the Middle East. The bases are used for training and logistical support for the Iraq war and USFK units have been deployed to Iraq.
To facilitate their consolidation of the U.S. military apparatus, the USFK and the South Korean government have collaborated to seize land from farmers in the Pyeongtaek region. Many villagers have refused reparations offers, resisted eviction orders, and engaged in civil disobedience against police and military efforts to remove them. They have gained widespread support from student anti-war activists from across Korea and around the world. In addition, many Korean citizens have protested against crimes committed by US soldiers and the oppressive international sex trade fueled by the presence of US bases.
On April 24, 2008, UW students and community members will be acting in solidarity with these Korean anti-war and anti-imperialist movements. We demand that UW divest from military contractors that support the USFK. UW has a large population of Asian American and Asian international students. US militarism in Asia is a threat to the peace and solidarity of our communities on both sides of the Pacific. In pursuing divestment we refuse to be subservient to US Empire and we stand for democracy and anti-racism in our communities
부가 정보