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Interview with Huh Young-koo, Acting-President of KCTU

BASE21 met with Huh Young-koo, vice-chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) who is temporarily filling in for President Dan Byung-ho's place. We interviewed Huh while he was participating at a "Free Dan" rally at Seoul Station on October 20th

Source  :  BASE21


By Lee Min-a/BASE21 Correspondent
NEWSDESK (tolerance@base21.org)

Oct. 23
(Seoul, Korea)

BASE21: A high-ranking official of the ILO came to Korea to examine labor-management relations. He also called for the release of President Dan. What else was discussed between KCTU and the ILO at the meeting?

Huh: We think of the ILO as a kind of global tripartite commission intervening in international conflicts between labor and capital. And the ILO thought it was regrettable that KCTU was not actively joining the tripartite committee. So, while other international labor and trade unions wholeheartdly endorsed KCTU's campaigns, the ILO was very careful about judging the current situation. The ILO urged that we reach a peaceful compromise with the government.

We pointed out that the Korean media tends to report on the violent methods that KCTU uses at some rallies. The media should carefully examine and explain why we cannot help but struggle in such a manner. That way, international groups such as the ILO can more clearly judge labor-management relations in Korea.

BASE21: KCTU held an emergency representative meeting because President Dan was arrested again right before he was to be released for an earlier sentence. Would you briefly explain what happened during the session?

H: What we can do for now is to wait until the trial of Mr. Dan is over. We need to take legitimate actions, and we are quite confident about that because our demands against government suppression of workers is evidently illegal.

We are also going to put pressure on the government by conducting a campaign at the Southern Hemisphere Conference in November with the aid of fellow workers of the world.

For the rest of the year, KCTU will concentrate on issues such as the five-day work week, the rights of contract workers, and we will also help establish unions for public service employees and professors. This struggle will be slightly different from the past ten months in that we will be fighting the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan and creating a coalition of people for global peace.

BASE21: As the KCTU represents 600,000 workers in Korea, what are its ideas on implementing a five-day work week system and helping the contract workers gain their rights?

H: A five-day workweek system is scheduled to be carried out by the year 2010. There should be no lay-offs and lowering of wages while the implementation of the system is in progress. Corporate firms and the government should be prepared with concrete measures in case some shortcomings in the enforcement of this system rises to the surface.

On the question of contract workers, revision of the law should be the primary goal in order to produce a positive impact on irregularly-employed workers. We hear that people feel neglected by the DJ administration because the government enforces neo-liberal policies in every field of society. KCTU cannot condone these inhmane policies imposed on workers, especially contract workers. We will have to keep talking to business leaders and the government to figure out a way to overcome the present situation.

BASE21: Is there a message you would like to share with workers all over the world as a leader of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions?

H: Growing suppression of labor by capital and political powers is a global epidemic. The state is supposed to protect the rights of its people. But our government, a "human rights government" as it declared itself, has arrested more workers than the previous administration.

President Kim Dae-jung is a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. But his legislation regarding protests and strikes is too restrictive, not to mention inhumane, as it suffocates the labor movement in Korea.

There is an urgent need to tell the world that Korea is not a safe country for workers. If international opinion recognizes this fact, then our struggle will truly be global, and hopefully improve the dire situation of workers in Korea.

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