An update on current struggles in Korea against the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement, Marty*
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) * *Action Alert* *June, 2007* *//* *Appeal for Solidarity : KCTU affiliate, KMWU Strikes to Oppose FTA Signing* */Situation summary: /* Workers, peasants, students, women's groups, progressive academics, cultural activists, public health advocates, independent media activists and many other social movement groupings in South Korea have been fighting the Kor-US FTA by staging strikes and mass demonstrations with each round of trade negotiations since last year. With the government shortcutting democratic discussion within Korea of an FTA, turning a deaf ear to workers, farmers and civil society concerns, and no channels to convey our concerns about the FTA, in April, KCTU member HEO, Se-wook took the drastic action of setting himself on fire in protest in front of the hotel where the last round of negotiations were taking place, shouting: "Stop the FTA negotiations!) as he fell. Brother HEO since passed away on April 15 from complications related to his third-degree burns. Yet, the trade negotiators concluded an agreement on April 2, and South Korean President ROH, Moo Hyun will be traveling to the United States to sign the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (Kor-US FTA) with US President George W. Bush on June 30. To voice auto workers' opposition to the signing of the Kor-US FTA, which would have massive impact on auto, the Korean Metal Workers' Union (KMWU) has undertaken a week of strike action beginning with rolling regional strikes from June 25 (Chungcheong and North Jolla regions), June 26 (Seoul Metropolitan and Kwangju/South Jolla region) and June 27 (Yeongnam region) and culminating in all KMWU members being called to strike in the whole country on June 28 and June 29. But the Thursday before the strike (June 21), the South Korean government announced that the KMWU strike is now defined as "illegal." The Minister of Labor (LEE, Sangsoo), Minister of Justice (KIM, Seongho) and Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy (KIM, Yeongju) clarified the grounds for this in a joint statement of June 21 : /"//this general strike bears no relation to the improvement of working conditions, and is undertaken with the motive of preventing the conclusion of the FTA, and as a political strike, it is clearly illegal ...//"// / This is consistent with the government's attitude that workers should not hold viewpoints on larger globalization issues that they express through unions, but rather should confine the role of unions to narrow enterprise-level economic issues. This view runs contrary to the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association report of June 2007 which recognizes that globalization does impact workers' wages and working conditions and states that unions can take action on "wider socio-economic issues linked to globalization" (paragraph 778). In their statement, the Ministers of Labor, Justice and Commerce, Industry and Energy justify their view of the strike as intolerable by staking out their opinion that: /"//The Kor-US FTA is an inevitable choice for surviving this global market through market-opening and competition//"// /and their belief that/ //"//it is time for the workers to join their strength [with employers] such that our economy will leap forward to another stage through this [the FTA].//"// / But the auto workers of the KMWU have analyzed the text of the agreement and concluded it would create the conditions to erode not only wages and working conditions, but also the very industrial base upon which they rely for employment; thus, the KMWU independent analysis does not support the ministers' claim that "/auto assembly workers would be the greatest beneficiaries of an FTA/" and the KMWU does not agree that this Kor-US FTA is the only and "inevitable" choice we should make. While announcing that "*No more* shall we tolerate illegal conduct," the Ministers explain a transition: /"//Recently, the OECD has recognized that our labor-management relations system compares favorably with other advanced industrial nations, and ended the labor-relations system monitoring process that our country had been under continuously for 10 years.//"// / Thus, the ministers proclaimed: /"//Needless to say the union officers, and even those forces who lead the illegal strike even if they are not officers will be treated with the //'//No Tolerance//'// principle and the accompanying disadvantages that would surely follow.//"/ Since the evening of June 25, the South Korean police has been trying to deliver summons to all the KMWU national officers and the chairs of all 19 KMWU Branches nationwide to submit themselves to police intelligence unit investigation for potential criminal activity (criminal obstruction of business) , which can lead to imprisonment. On June 26, the Minister of Labor announced in a national radio interview that he could use the physical force of the state to stop the strike in the middle or before or any timing. */Call for action: /* We are calling for statements in support of the KMWU General Strike. Solidarity Statements addressed to JUNG, Gap-Deuk can be faxed to : KMWU +82-2-714-0662 or e-mailed to [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Examples of solidarity statements can be seen on the IMF webpage at http://www.imfmetal.org/main/index.cfm?n=47&l=2&c=16210 <http://www.imfmetal.org/main/index.cfm?n=47&l=2&c=16210> Please send a copy to KCTU, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or +82-2-2635-1134(fax) Your solidarity would be enormously helpful in showing the South Korean metal workers that we are not alone in the struggle against free trade agreements that would pit us against other workers in a race to the bottom.
