Welcome to BASE21

On 23rd March, the inauguration rally for the Korea Government Employees Union was suppressed by the police.

The inauguration rally was scheduled to take place at Seoul National University, but was blocked by the police prior to the rally. The time of the inaugurating representative council meeting of KGEU was then moved up and held at Korea University. 268 representatives out of 456 managed to break away from the government's suppression and participated in the meeting. The statutes, a platform and a declaration were passed at the inaugurating council meeting. However, police came in while elections for board members were taking place and 178 persons were apprehended, 2 persons were arrested, and arrest warrants for three more persons, including the former-chairperson of KAGEWC, the mother organization of the union., were issued. The police also forced the former secretary general of KAGEWC to the police station on 28th, as he was going back to work. The situation foresees massive suppression against all leaders of the union.

The government tried to suppress, through all methods possible, KGEU's attempts to form a union even before the inauguration by mobilising related officials and the police prior to the official inauguration. One week prior to the inauguration, the Ministry of Administrative Affairs sent down orders not to participate in the rally on 24th March, while surveying on the activities of the KAGEWC. The police also followed man-to-man each representative coming up from the regional branches, and threatened them. Some representatives went back down, others were forced to return. On the day of the rally, those who were identified to be government employees were taken away to the police station and were only released after promising not to participate in the rally. They were followed by 8 detectives even after they were released.

At the moment, with arrest warrants for union leaders having been issued, discussions on countermeasures and protests against the government are being mobilised by the Common Countermeasure Committee for Labour Rights of Government Employees and University Professors(CCC). Statements from various sectors are being issued, demanding for the stop to suppression of the KGEU and the three basic rights of workers, while KCTU is preparing a solidarity strike against the suppression of electricity workers and the KGEU.