9/17/2023 0 Comments Kctu general strike![]() ![]() They won a 7.9% pay increase and incentives of up to 650% of workers’ monthly wages. Workers at HMM, South Korea’s biggest container ship company, carried out a strike that lasted 77 days until the end of August. During the strike, the workers rallied just blocks away from parliament and the skyscraper headquarters of the chaebols. ![]() They won a cap on hours and several delivery companies have committed to hire more workers to sort packages. In June, some 2,100 couriers struck against unbelievably long hours and overwork that caused the deaths of 16 union members. media hasn’t reported what happened in South Korea just last summer. financial institutions.Ĭlaiming that South Korean workers have lost enthusiasm to fight back is not just twisting facts or taking things out of context – it is an out-and-out lie. The chaebols dominate the South Korean economy and have an incestuous relationship with U.S. This pauperization of a large section of the working class has enabled South Korea’s giant corporate monopolies - chaebols - to run roughshod over the lives of the working class. The disappearance of jobs with pensions has led to a 50% poverty rate among elderly workers, many of whom are now homeless. Similar to but even more pronounced than the “gig economy” of the U.S., temporary workers in South Korea are forced to work long hours at low wages without even basic benefits. Secure, living-wage jobs with benefits are disappearing. The percentage of temporary workers in South Korea is among the highest in the world, ranging between 25% and 35% over time, mostly women, children and elderly. They fail to mention that the KCTU has grown to become the largest trade union confederation based on its history of militant and determined struggle. Instead, the New York Times writes that South Korean workers have lost “enthusiasm” for strikes. Where are the cries for human rights in South Korea? Compare that to what you’d hear if the head of a labor union were arrested in Cuba, China, Nicaragua, Venezuela or any other country that struggles to remain independent. There has been no international outcry over the arrest, no word of it in the U.S. All 13 were at one time or another jailed by the U.S.-backed South Korean state. Since its foundation in 1995, there have been 13 presidents of the KCTU. Police had attempted the arrest in mid-August at the KCTU headquarters but were fought off by union members and forced to retreat.Īlthough the Moon Jae-in government rode a wave of support by labor unions, and in particular the KCTU, repression against the labor movement has not changed and is continuing. 20, and has now taken on demands to release Yang. Yang Kyung-soo, the president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) - South Korea’s largest and most militant trade union confederation - has been jailed and is on a hunger strike.Ī general strike had already been called for Oct. Korean Confederation of Trade Unions president Yang Kyung-soo waves to supporters while police transfer him to a detention center. ![]()
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