Struggle of Unionists for Right to Existence

Struggle of Unionists for Right to Existence

More than 16,000 railway unionists of south Korea launched an indefinite strike for the right to existence on November 26.

The Korean Rail Workers’ Union which had held several rounds of negotiations with the managements for the restoration of the dismissed workers, wage hike and other issues began the strike after the Railway Corporation totally rejected their demands and annulled the agreements with the union.

In solidarity with them many local headquarters in Seoul, Busan, Daejeon, Suncheon, Youngju and other areas conducted full-scale struggle, thus the struggle of the railway unionists spread across south Korea.

The strikers exposed that the Railway Corporation resorted to illegal actions such as appeasing the workers not to take part in the strike, stating that the current struggle is the eruption of the indignation toward the managements who rendered the agreements gained by the workers’ blood, sweat and sacrifice dead-paper, and a struggle to defend the union from all sorts of unreasonable suppression.

They demonstrated their will of struggle chanting slogans such as “Stop the business restructuring!”, “Implement the labor-management agreements!”, “The railway to the people!” and “We will never give up to the suppression”.

On November 28 over 12,000 unionists affiliated with the Public Transportation League of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the public sectors league of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions held in Seoul a solidarity rally to demand the authorities repeal the anti-worker policy.

Prior to that, the Kyeonggnam headquarters of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions held a rally in Changweon for securing the basic rights of workers, frustrating the dismissal and opposing the legislation for privatizing medical service.

The south Korean authorities mercilessly suppress the righteous struggle of the workers for defending the rights of labor and existence by mobilizing security forces, branding it as “illegal” far from accepting their just demands.

Though the regime often publicized that it pursues the policy for ordinary people, it has done nothing but pro-business policy only for a handful of the conglomerates.

From the outset of the current regime the number of the unemployed is on steady increase and the wage of those who hardly keep their job is incessantly falling, triggering a great anger among different social strata.

All the facts show that the anti-people nature of the regime can never change.

The south Korean workers should vigorously wage the struggle to gain their rights and interests, never harboring

KCTU Launches Anti-"government" Struggle

KCTU Launches Anti-"government" Struggle

Pyongyang, December 11 (KCNA) -- The south Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) kicked off an anti-"government" struggle across south Korea on Dec. 8 in protest against the suppression of the labor movement. The organization held a rally in Seoul for "denouncing the collusion behind the closed doors, defending democratic unions and forcing the regime step down". Participants in the rally accused the south Korean Ministry of Labor, the Federation of south Korean Trade Unions and the "General Association of Korean Businessmen" of "agreeing" on Dec. 4 on the "amendment to the Law on Trade Unions" the keynote of which calls for banning the payment of wages to full-time officials of trade unions, etc. They charged that their collusion was aimed to trample down upon the rights of workers and block the activities of trade unions. They declared trade unions in various fields under the KCTU would launch anti- "government" actions one after another with the rally as a prelude. They also stated that they would simultaneously hold mass rallies across south Korea on Dec. 19, in particular, in an effort to escalate their actions. The regional headquarters of the KCTU in different areas such as Taegu, Pusan and Ulsan launched sit-in strikes in protest against the authorities' moves to crack down upon the labor movement on the same day.