Migrant Workers' Union Takes Off
The Migrants Branch of the Seoul, Gyeonggi, Inchon Region Equality Trade Union finally had its inaugural ceremony, coloured by congratulatory messages from various organization from in and outside Korea
Source :
Migrant Workers' Union Takes Off
26th May was surely a day of jubilation - not just for the migrant workers of Korea, but for all who seek to put an end to inequalities of nationality, race and gender. The Migrants Branch of the Seoul, Gyeonggi, Inchon Region Equality Trade Union finally had its inaugural ceremony, coloured by congratulatory messages from various organization from in and outside Korea and cultural performances by Nepalese, Bangladeshi and Philippino workers, just to name a few - to become the first migrant workers' union in Korean history. However, it was not just a day of joy, but also a day of stern determination on the part of the migrant workers, to terminate their lives as sub-humans, organize and join hands with Korean workers. On the part of Korean workers and activists, it was an occasion for them to introspect and reflect upon the long history of exclusivist attitudes that they had towards migrant workers.
Seoul, Gyeonggi, Inchon Region Equality Trade Union, a member organization of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions(KCTU), is a regional union consisting of workers who are the most oppressed and exploited - women, migrants and the disabled. The Migrants Branch was established last March, and already more than a hundred migrant workers have applied for membership. The workers made a definite mark at the Mayday demonstrations, where they gathered under the Equality Union flag shouting 'nodong ja neun hanada!' ('Workers are one!' in Korean), made speeches and marched together with Korean workers and activists. A few migrant workers had come to other demonstrations prior to Mayday, but never before in such number, in such organized manner.
Transnational capital has brought about the transnationalization of workforce, in its consistent search for cheaper and more exploitable labour. Companies have moved their plant to Third World countries, made themselves at home in Export Processing Zones where they can attain an abundance of cheap labour. Or they remain in their home countries and 'import' cheap labour, oppressing and exploiting them through illegality and 'trainee systems'. Women workers, migrant workers and disabled workers, the majority of whom are part-time or subcontract workers, are the most vulnerable in this masquerade of global capital. But the movements in Korea to organized these workers who are most severely attacked under globalization - beginning with women workers' unions that started to be formed two or three years ago, and now the founding of the Migrants Branch - signify a major step forward in the struggle against globalization, and prospects of solidarity that crosses race, nationality and gender. This, of course, means that sexism, racism and nationalism have to be overcome - a task that is urgently needed in the Korean labour movement. There are high hopes that the Equality Union, with its branches for migrants, women and disabled, will make a definite contribution to breaking the barriers and rise up to be the prominent forces in the struggle against globalization.
(photos from KCTU)
* For more information on the situation and struggles of migrant workers in Korea, refer to PICIS Newsletter Issue 82 (30th March, 2001) "In Depth Look : The Migrant Workers of Korea"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inauguration Manifesto
Global capital moves around from the northern to the southern hemisphere, from the west to the east, and destroys the lives of peoples and workers. Peoples and workers all around the world are hit by transnational capital instigated by institutions such as IMF, IBRD and WTO, and are driven into severe poverty and unemployment. Also, capital structures itself into trends that strengthen oppression and control of workers through the divisions of contract, specially employed, provisional, dispatched, subcontract, day-based and migrant workers. Capital forces workers to be more submissive. Capital forces workers to draw out more blood and sweat. But capital does not merely stop at squeezing the bodies of workers. Capital seeks to split apart workers into full-time and part-time workers, national and migrant workers, men and women workers. It seeks to basically block the unity of workers which it sees as most threatening.
We cannot become engulfed in the divide-and-rule policies of capital. We know. That workers cannot stay alive, that we will not be able to protect our right to our lives without struggling. We cannot survive if the working class does not unite. There will otherwise be no choice but to continue the life of tiresome poverty and years of contempt. Therefore we will act out, struggle and unite. For the unity of the workers of the world, for emancipation and for our right to live!
The Migrants Branch of the Seoul·Gyeonggi·Incheon Region Equality Trade Union will standup as a watershed in the Korean workers movement. Not merely as a bond between migrant workers, between part-time workers or as a development of the Korean workers' movement, but it will become a small but strong echo for the unity and advancement of the working class of the entire world.
This is just the beginning. Our members might be fired merely by the fact that they are involved in union activities. Or even cuffed, arrested and deported. Our struggle which seeks basic labour rights will not be a smooth one, blocked by the barriers of exclusive nationalism of Korean society and the refusal to be recognized as workers. This is correct. At the moment we have nothing. But because we have nothing, because we were completely alienated legally and socially, we are able to stand up this way.
But we have a lot. We have self-pride as workers. We have Korean comrades who are together with us as workers. We have the democratic union workers of Korea who have developed the democratic union movement through struggles. Just as many comrades are congratulating our start, we believe that Korean comrades will unite strongly with us until the day we seize 'remission of all undocumented illegal migrants, abolishment of the trainee system, complete application of labour laws'. Until now we were lonely but from now we will have comrades in unity. In the name of the Worker, with the union as a weapon : Unite! Struggle! To victory!
Live as a human by united struggle of the Migrants Branch!
Workers as one, achieve emancipation of workers!
26th May, 2001
The Migrants Branch, Seoul·Gyeonggi·Incheon Region Equality Trade Union
|
