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27 April, 2000Stay ready with the usual protest letters, say the Korean trade unions.
KOREA, REP: According to a press statement issued by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, on April 25 at 3:40 a.m. more than 100 battle-geared police raided the office of the Daewoo Motors Workers' Union (DMWU) in Pupyung, near Seoul. They arrested all 20 trade union leaders and activists who were making the union office their temporary home during the on-going campaign to influence the outcome of the ailing company's restructuring.
This latest strong-hand attack by police on trade unionists is evidence of the government's negative attitude towards the demands of the autoworkers to set up a special taskforce composed of representatives of workers, company, creditor banks, government and experts, etc. to undertake a comprehensive examination and discussion on the best way to rescue the troubled Daewoo Motors. The trade union has taken a step back from its original position of an immediate and unconditional end to the plan to sell the second largest carmaker to a foreign buyer. The government stated it was not willing to participate in consultation and joint decision-making of this kind with the trade union movement.
Of the 20 DMWU trade unionists who were arrested on April 25, 13 activists were released, but 7 top trade union officials are still being detained by police, and it is expected they will be charged and kept in prison.
The names of the seven are: Choo Young-ho, president; Lee Nam-mok, vice-president; Chang Soon-kil, organising director; Kim Jo-hyun, industrial action director; Bok Jae-hyun, union activist; Yoo Young-ku, sports activities director; and Lee Bong-yong, industrial health and safety director.
There are still 11 activists on the original list of Daewoo workers with arrest warrants against them. Key unionists from Hyundai Motors Workers' Union, including its president, Jeung Kap-deuk, as well as others involved in the current autoworkers' campaign, are also wanted for arrest.
The recalcitrant position of the Korean government led to the April 6 strike by autoworkers of the four major carmakers. It lasted 7 days. The government response to the strike was 35 arrest warrants for union leaders and activists.
In the recent meeting of a delegation from the Trade Union Advisory Committee with the OECD Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Committee, to press the OECD not to suspend its special monitoring of Korea's labour rights, the KCTU submitted a written intervention. It called on the Committee "not to be satisfied with the half-hearted adherence to international standards by the Korean government." The KCTU said the government felt justified to overlook standards in times of "economic crisis" or in pursuing "structural adjustment". What the Korean government overlooks, says the KCTU, is the fact that while removing trade union "opposition" may make the structural adjustment process easier in the short term, it will certainly sour industrial relations, and thus endanger confidence in the long-term.
This latest strong-hand attack by police on trade unionists is evidence of the government's negative attitude towards the demands of the autoworkers to set up a special taskforce composed of representatives of workers, company, creditor banks, government and experts, etc. to undertake a comprehensive examination and discussion on the best way to rescue the troubled Daewoo Motors. The trade union has taken a step back from its original position of an immediate and unconditional end to the plan to sell the second largest carmaker to a foreign buyer. The government stated it was not willing to participate in consultation and joint decision-making of this kind with the trade union movement.
Of the 20 DMWU trade unionists who were arrested on April 25, 13 activists were released, but 7 top trade union officials are still being detained by police, and it is expected they will be charged and kept in prison.
The names of the seven are: Choo Young-ho, president; Lee Nam-mok, vice-president; Chang Soon-kil, organising director; Kim Jo-hyun, industrial action director; Bok Jae-hyun, union activist; Yoo Young-ku, sports activities director; and Lee Bong-yong, industrial health and safety director.
There are still 11 activists on the original list of Daewoo workers with arrest warrants against them. Key unionists from Hyundai Motors Workers' Union, including its president, Jeung Kap-deuk, as well as others involved in the current autoworkers' campaign, are also wanted for arrest.
The recalcitrant position of the Korean government led to the April 6 strike by autoworkers of the four major carmakers. It lasted 7 days. The government response to the strike was 35 arrest warrants for union leaders and activists.
In the recent meeting of a delegation from the Trade Union Advisory Committee with the OECD Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Committee, to press the OECD not to suspend its special monitoring of Korea's labour rights, the KCTU submitted a written intervention. It called on the Committee "not to be satisfied with the half-hearted adherence to international standards by the Korean government." The KCTU said the government felt justified to overlook standards in times of "economic crisis" or in pursuing "structural adjustment". What the Korean government overlooks, says the KCTU, is the fact that while removing trade union "opposition" may make the structural adjustment process easier in the short term, it will certainly sour industrial relations, and thus endanger confidence in the long-term.