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19 September, 1999Dan Byung-ho, former president of the IMF-affiliated Korean Metal Workers' Federation, has been elected president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.
KOREA, REP: According to the Korea Times, Dan Byung-ho was elected yesterday, September 19, at an extraordinary meeting of representatives of the KCTU, to take the helm of the labour group.
Dan takes over the presidential functions of the KCTU, the more progressive of the country's two umbrella labour groups, for a year and a half, the remaining term of office of the outgoing president, Lee Kap-yong. Lee Soo-ho, a career education union activist, has been elected KCTU general secretary.
Union experts have said the KCTU will chart its labour movement direction under the new leadership. What is seen as one of the more important issues for the KCTU is whether it will participate again in the Tripartite Consultative Committee.
The committee, consisting of representatives from government, management and labour, was formed in 1998 to discuss pending labour issues, including the massive layoffs following corporate and financial-sector restructuring. Both the KCTU and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions tentatively withdrew their representatives earlier this year, but the FKTU has declared its intention to return to the panel.
Dan was released from prison under a special presidential amnesty on August 15, on Korea's 54th anniversary of the National Day of Independence. He had been arrested in Seoul on October 19, 1998, and charged with "conspiring to obstruct business through a general strike" and "inciting illegal strike action." On January 12, after a public trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison.
Dan takes over the presidential functions of the KCTU, the more progressive of the country's two umbrella labour groups, for a year and a half, the remaining term of office of the outgoing president, Lee Kap-yong. Lee Soo-ho, a career education union activist, has been elected KCTU general secretary.
Union experts have said the KCTU will chart its labour movement direction under the new leadership. What is seen as one of the more important issues for the KCTU is whether it will participate again in the Tripartite Consultative Committee.
The committee, consisting of representatives from government, management and labour, was formed in 1998 to discuss pending labour issues, including the massive layoffs following corporate and financial-sector restructuring. Both the KCTU and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions tentatively withdrew their representatives earlier this year, but the FKTU has declared its intention to return to the panel.
Dan was released from prison under a special presidential amnesty on August 15, on Korea's 54th anniversary of the National Day of Independence. He had been arrested in Seoul on October 19, 1998, and charged with "conspiring to obstruct business through a general strike" and "inciting illegal strike action." On January 12, after a public trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison.