Korean Confederation of Trade Unions |
2nd Fl. Daeyoung Bld., 139 Youngdeungpo-2-ga, Youngdeungpo-ku, Seoul 150-032 Korea Tel.: +82-2-2670-9118 Fax: +82-2-2635-1134 E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. http://kctu.org |
[KCTU newsletter, 2009]
1. Public Sector Workers' Struggle and Government Repression
1) The Korean Federation of Public Services and Transportation Workers’ Unions (KPTU), an affiliate of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), recently began a struggle against the government plan for privatization of public enterprises and so called 'business rationalization' of public institutions—in other words, the merging of public enterprises and utilities, layoffs and the imposition of productivity and efficiency on public services. Three affiliates of KPTU, the Korean Railway Workers' Union, the Korean Public & Social Service Workers' Union (KPSU)-KoGas Branch, and the Korean Powerplant Workers Union set up a headquarters for coordinated struggle. On October 10th, November 6 and November 28th they held mass rallies denouncing the government’s repression of the public sector.
2) In particular, the management of Korail’s unilaterally cancelled the current Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Korean Railway Workers’ Union as they prepared for a strike against restructuring on November 26. This was the first time the CBA has been cancelled in 60 years. Unilateral cancellation of CBAs is the worst of unjust labor practices, which has been used with increasing frequency by vicious enterprises in order to incapacitate trade unions. Recently, in many workplaces CBAs have become useless pieces of paper due to the repression of trade union activities by the government. Facing this situation, the Korean Railway Workers Union came out on strike to defend democratic trade unions.
3) The Korea Labor Institute, the head of which is an associate of the President, recently sparked public uproar when he commented that the 3 basic labor rights guaranteed in the Constitution should be abolished. These remarks aroused a massive response from the institute’s trade union, which carried out a struggle for more that 100 days. The Instituted then locked its employees out on December 1st for the first time in history.
4) The repression of the Korean Government Employees' Union (KGEU) is also beyond comprehension. The government dismissed the newly elected president of KGEU on disciplinary grounds and closed union offices down. However, the three separate government employees unions have come together to form one union and have joined the KCTU.
5) The police conducted a raid on the KGEU office in the Yeongdeungpo area of Seoul, and the two offices of KRWU in the Yongsan area. Arrest warrants have been issued against Kim Ki-tae, the president of KRWU and 15 other leaders of the union. 884 union members have been dismissed. Among other unions, 197 union leaders have been charged with "obstruction of business". The Korail management is about to sue the union and its leaders for compensation for damages, insisting that the strike meant $ 7.8 million worth of financial losses to Korail. The KRWU already have $10 billion to pay in damages from previous struggles.
6) On December 3rd, KRWU suspended its 8 days strike and went back to work. "I'm asking members to go back to their workplaces for a while and to prepare for our next fight. We have won only half of what we want. We responded to their illegal and senseless act with a reasonable and peaceful strike. However, we will resume our struggle after getting reorganizing and gathering more power,” the president of KRWU declared. This means that the union will continue its struggle.
2. Backdrop the Government’s Repression
1) The KRWU’s strike was "lawful". Previously, it was impossible for unions to conduct a lawful strike under the "compulsory arbitration system." From January 1, 2008, a new evil system, “maintenance of essential services" replaced the "compulsory arbitration system." The ILO gives a strict interpretation to "essential services”, in which the right to strike can be restricted from "minimum services" which should be maintained during a labor action. However, the "maintenance of essential services" system was designed with the actual goal of restricting the right to collective action.
2) Nevertheless, the KRWU was conducting its strike abiding by this evil law. In other words, it is clear that this was a legal strike in which 15,000 workers, excluding 10,000 workers in essential services, joined.
3) President Lee Myung-Bak however, is taking the lead in obstructing any discussion between labor and management and incapacitating the union. "The principle must be upheld under all condition. If an exception is made at this time, it could be repeated in the future. No compromise should be made with this union,” said President Lee on December 2nd.
4) On December 1st, lawyers and certified public labor attorneys held a press conference and made clear that the strike conducted by the KRWU is a lawful collective action guaranteed under the Constitution and other laws. They stressed that this strike is lawful in terms of both procedure and aim and the right to collective action including the right strike is a basic right guaranteed in the Constitution. In a nutshell, this strike was the result of the Lee government's blatant disregard of the constitutional value of the 3 basic labor rights and its policy of incapacitating trade unions in public sector. This attitude of the government is also the reason the strike went on for so long.
5) The industrial unrest in the Korail, the Korea Labor Institute and other administrative organs was aggravated by the fact that the government had pushed ahead with restructuring of public institutions unilaterally. The relentless crackdown on trade unions is clear indication of the government's intention to tame the unions.
3. Call for International Solidarity and Support
We are asking for your continued attention to the relentless government crackdown on trade union rights in the South Korean public sector. Any solidarity action is welcome including sending protest letters to the Korean government or visiting the Korean embassy in your own country.
The demands of KCTU and its affiliates are as following;
-Arrest warrants against Kim Ki-tae, the president of KRWU, and 15 other leaders of the union, and all other charges, legal actions and dismissals should be withdrawn. Yoon Jeung-Hyun, the Mister of Strategy and Finance and Yim Tae-hee, the Minister of Labor, who made a special statement calling the lawful strike illegal, should make public apologies. President Lee Myung-Bak must respect the 3 basic labor rights guaranteed by the Korean Constitution and as international labor standards.
- The disciplinary dismissal of Yang Seong-Yoon, the newly elected president of the Korean Government Employees Union should be withdrawn. The government should recognize the KGEU's lawfulness. The government should refrain from any attempt to infringe of the right to association of government employees.
- The unilateral cancellation, suspension or amendment of public sector Collective Bargaining Agreements should be stopped.
※ Protest letters should be sent to the address below:
Lee Myung-Bak
President of the Republic of Korea
Chengwadae: 1 Cheongwadae-ro, Jongno-gu
Seoul, 110-820
KOREA
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Fax: +82_2_2110_3079/+82-2-770-4735
※ For further information, please contact Bro. Young-Bae Chang, International Secretary of the KPTU, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Jinwon Yoon, Spokesperson of the KGEU, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." target="_blank">Email:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or Sis Mikyung Ryu, International Director of the KCTU, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." target="_blank">Email:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Ryu, Mikyung
International Director
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
Tel.: +82-2-2670-9118 Fax: +82-2-2635-1134
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Web-site : http://kctu.org
2nd Fl. Daeyoung Bld., 139 Youngdeungpo-2-ga, Youngdeungpo-ku, Seoul 150-032 Korea
Sharmila is not alone in her struggle. The state erupted in flames in July 2004, after the brutal rape and murder of a young woman, Thangjam Manorama Devi, by the Assam Rifles personnel. Manorama was a 32 year old woman, who sustained herself and her family by weaving. On 11 July 2004, she was arrested from her home by paramilitary forces of the 17 Assam Rifles. The arrest memo given to her mother stated no weapons had been found at her home. Her body was found some hours later, at about 5:00 PM, without proper clothes on, and shot at various places, including her vagina. The Assam Rifles version of the episode is the same as the one given out in all such incidents of the killing of "hardcore militants" while in the custody of the security forces. A statement issued by the paramilitary force stated that self-styled "Corporal" Thangjam Manorama, alias Henthoi, was gunned down as she made a bid to escape by jumping down from the vehicle that the force used. This of course did not explain why she was shot in the vagina. It was widely felt that had been done to cover up traces of rape. The heinous incident triggered an unprecedented form of protest by Manipuri women that briefly shook India. In an attempt to draw the attention of an insensitive and cold-blooded security and political establishment in Imphal and Delhi, (as well, one would suggest, as the bulk of civil society in mainstream India), Manipuri women, calling themselves Mothers of Manorama, turned to their bodies to give vent to their resentment. They stripped themselves in front of the Assam Rifles headquarters in Imphal and challenged the army to rape them. “Indian Army, Rape Us,” said their banner, as they protested, naked. On August 15, 2004, India’s independence day, Pebang Chittaranjan doused himself in kerosene and set himself in fire. He died soon after. He too demanded the abolition of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. A 32-organisation network called for further protests, to which Chief Minister Ibobi Singh responded by branding Thangjam Manorama a hardcore terrorist, following the lead of the Assam Rifles. Clearly, in Manipur it is the army and the paramilitary who dictate terms to the “elected” civilian governments.
Twenty-five years after the worst industrial disaster in history, the people of Bhopal, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, are still fighting for justice.
On December 3, 1984, a leak at Union Carbide’s Bhopal factory sent a barrage of toxic gases through the city. The streets were flooded with people desperately trying to flee the clouds of poison, choking, convulsing, vomiting and writhing in pain.
The poor suffered the worst casualties, with less ability to escape quickly in vehicles.
At least 8000 people died in the immediate aftermath and hundreds of thousands more were left with horrific injuries and severe lifelong health problems. Subsequent generations have also suffered the effects.
The Bhopal plant had employed sub-standard technology, far inferior to that in Union Carbide’s United States factory. In the years leading up to the disaster, Union Carbide slashed jobs at the plant, dramatically decreased staff safety training and cut costs from the maintenance budget.
A series of smaller leaks during that time hinted at what was to come. By that fateful day, the factory’s safety systems were all utterly dysfunctional.
Union Carbide, concerned only with avoiding any admission of liability that may have financial consequences, criminally refused to release information about the leaked gases.
This prevented hospital staff from being able to determine appropriate urgent treatment, escalating the number of fatalities and serious injuries.
The death toll now stands at more than 20,000 and rises almost daily.
Shana Ortman, US Coordinator of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB), told Green Left Weekly that for many Bhopalis, “December 3, 1984 was just the beginning of a lifelong disaster”.
She said more than half a million people were exposed to the gases and more than 100,000 people remain unable to work due to exposure-related illness.
“Union Carbide may have abandoned their plant in 1984, but the toxic waste that they had been throwing into a breached solar evaporation pond has stayed and spread each monsoon season into surrounding neighbourhoods.
”More than 20,000 people have been forced to drink water contaminated with toxins like mercury, dichlorobenzene, chloroform, carbon tetrachloride and other persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals.
“This has caused all sorts of birth defects and health problems for children and adults living in those neighbourhoods.”
In 2001, Union Carbide became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company. Ortman said: “Dow, according to its own public statements, made the decision to acquire the company with full knowledge of the criminal charges pending against Union Carbide and their status as a fugitive from justice.
“Despite repeated public requests and protests around the world, Dow Chemical has refused to make its new subsidiary appear before the Bhopal District Court to face the criminal charges pending against it.
“Dow also insists that Union Carbide corrected the situation when they settled the civil damages for [US]$470 million with the Indian government in 1989. However, this settlement did not extinguish the criminal charges against the company or its officials.
“The settlement only dealt with illnesses and deaths from gas exposure on December 3, but did not deal with the groundwater and soil contamination that Union Carbide left behind.”
The ICJB wants the US Congress to hold a congressional hearing into the ongoing contamination at the abandoned site in Bhopal and Dow’s liabilities, and has received support from some members of Congress.
Ortman told GLW that under the Bush administration, the US State Department refused to extradite Warren Anderson, Union Carbide CEO at the time of the disaster, to India to face criminal charges.
The ICJB is hoping that the new administration will grant any future request from India.
The Indian government has asked for more than $20 million from Dow as an advance payment towards cleaning up the abandoned site at Bhopal, including the poisoned groundwater and contaminated areas around the plant. But Dow has not been forthcoming.
Ortman said the Indian government “must begin clean up now to prevent further spread of the toxins” and should “use the legal system to force Dow to pay for it”.
The ICJB is also demanding that Union Carbide “show up in court to face trial in the ongoing criminal proceedings against them in India”.
Ortman said the Indian government also “promised to build pipelines to bring clean water to the communities that have been drinking, eating, and washing with water contaminated by the chemicals that Union Carbide left behind”.
She said that while construction began, it has stalled, and “needs to be completed urgently”.
In August 2008, the Indian government promised to set up an “empowered commission” to address the range of health, environmental, social and economic issues in Bhopal. The ICJB is calling for this promise to be fulfilled immediately.
Since the disaster, survivors and their supporters have been fighting for justice and reparations. In recent years the campaign has been successful in pushing a number of Indian universities to reject sponsorship from Dow. Last year, protesters prevented a Dow research and development centre from being built near Pune.
On November 19, in the lead-up to the 25th anniversary of the disaster, hundreds of Bhopalis protested outside Dow’s offices in Noida, near New Delhi. The protesters vowed to continue their campaign to force Dow out of India until the company accepts its liability in Bhopal.
To mark the anniversary on December 3, Ortman said “survivors have called upon activists around the world to organise a day of action”. More than 100 actions globally are expected to take place, including “die-ins or protests, educational actions like vigils, film screenings or photo exhibits, and individual actions, like call-ins or hunger fasts”.
Kerryn Williams
For more information and to support the campaign, visit www.studentsforbhopal.org.
You can also donate to the campaign at www.bhopal.net/donate.