On November 30, one day after the KCTU had launched another full day General Strike in an effort to urge the South Korean government to address its four main issues which included the call for a stop to the passage of the Irregular Workers Bill, the bill was swiftly passed by the National Assembly. Despite the government’s promises to make final changes to the series of legislations designed to “improve the rights and standards of irregular workers as well as to eradicate discrimination of irregular workers,” the government introduced it intact, once again breaking its agreement with South Korean workers.
As widely reported by the KCTU in the past, these bills will not resolve the irregular workers problem in South Korea, instead the bills would basically allow an expansion of number of industries that can hire irregular workers and the “freer” use of temporary contract workers during contract year period of two years. More importantly, these bill leave out any measures that guarantee the basic labor rights of specially employment workers, resolving discrimination, guaranteeing equal pay for equal work clause, and standards on how to judge discrimination, the bills have close to none in effectiveness.
Prior to the passage of the bill a number of unions representing self-employed workers such as the Korean Construction Transport Workers Union representing dump truck and remicon (ready-mixed cement) truck drivers and the Korean Transport and Cargo Workers Union, had met with government representatives who had promised to make changes to the laws that would recognize the situation of self-employed workers. However, once again the South Korean government reneged in its promise. As a result, many unions representing irregular workers, which are increasingly becoming the majority of the work force in South Korea, have been engaged in “emergency-mode” actions to express their outrage.
It appears that the South Korean government under Roh Moo Hyun has basically decided to disregard the promises and agreements it had made with South Korean workers. In 2005, the government had agreed to address the concerns of cargo transport workers but again it has failed to even move one inch in the direction of addressing the rights of cargo transport workers. Consequently, on December 1, the Korean Cargo Transport Workers Union (KCTW) representing thousands of container and cargo truck drivers have decided to once again go on strike. This time, they have declared not to end the strike until the government actually implements constructive measures to genuinely honor its agreement with the KCTW.
On November 17, at a press conference specifically geared towards foreign correspondents in South Korea, the Korean Cargo Transport Workers Union outlined their reasons behind their intent to go on strike. The following is their statement:
Press Statement of the Korean Cargo Transport Workers Union
In October 2005 the South Korean government and the ruling Uri Party came to an agreement with the Korean Cargo Transport Workers union to review the basic fundamental rights of cargo transport workers as well as address their main issues which included the price of gave and the average standard freight charge for transporting cargo and containers. As a result of this agreement, we ended our strike. However even though one year has passed, the government and the ruling party still have failed to abide by this agreement.
The main issue for us is the standard freight charge for the transporting cargo and containers. The government at the time stated that it would review the appropriate standard freight charge recognizing that cargo transport workers are one of the economically marginalized workforce in South Korean society. Since the market rate of the standard freight charge is not sufficient, the government agreed to establish a minimum standard freight charge to ensure the economic livelihood of cargo transport workers. Yet, the government has yet to do so.
In addition, another major concern for us is our basic labor rights. At the time of our strike, the government recognized the rights of “self-employed” workers and they agreed to introduce a new set of laws that would ensure fundamental labor rights for cargo and transport workers but again they have also not kept this promise. The proposed legislation they introduced this past October 26 that supposedly addresses the three basic labor rights and OHS insurance bill for cargo transport workers in reality is the basically a superficial reformed set of ideas discussed since 2003.
Before the introduction of this proposal, on October 11, the government Committee on Fair Trade stated that the issue of the minimum standard freight charge for cargo transport workers would be discussed with cargo and container transport companies. In May 2003, as a result of the strike we had launched at the time, the then government established a formal structure to determine the standard freight charges for cargo transport workers. This committee included the main cargo companies, cargo transport subcontractors association, cargo transport subcontractors, and the Korean Cargo Transport Workers Union. Instead of honoring the points agreed upon through negotiations in this committee, the government has basically chosen to ignore the negotiated agreed points. More importantly, the government has decided to repress the rights of cargo transport workers.
We believe that the government and the ruling party had never been interested in keeping its promised agreement with us. This is quite evident by the fact that they have decided to even deny making an agreement in the first place. We are totally outraged by these actions because we believe that a genuine government should honor the agreement they had made with the cargo and transport workers. However, in the end the government has chosen to side with cargo and container freight companies while continuing its repressive anti-union campaign against the Korean Cargo Transport Workers Union.
We are currently preparing to launch a full fledged national campaign against the government for rescinding in its promise to address the minimum standard freight charge and to ensure the basic fundamental labor rights for cargo transport workers. In October, at our national delegation meeting, the delegates voted for a general strike. From November 9 to 15, the KCTW conducted a strike vote and 72.9% of the membership voted to go on strike and on November 17, each of the branches began to establish strike committees.
We call on the South Korean government to keep the promises it made last year. At the very least, we call on the government to recollect its memory in recognizing the agreement it made with us. The government agreed to address the minimum freight charge and ensure the basic labor rights for cargo transport workers. We call on the government to keep this promise.
The Korean Cargo Transport Workers Union is committed to doing everything in its power to fulfill its goals. We will do our best. We have given the government and the ruling party until the end of November to fulfill the agreement it had made to us.
However, if the government fails to do so by December 1st then we have no choice but to launch a General Strike once again. Should the government choose to repress our right to conduct this strike then we will make sure that not a single cargo or container transport truck will be operating on South Korean roads. The roads will be empty of the roar of cargo and container transport trucks.
November 17, 2006
Korean Cargo Transport Workers Union
Lee Changgeun
International Director
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
Tel.: +82-2-2670-9234 Fax: +82-2-2635-1134
E-mail: inter kctu.org Web-site : http://kctu.org
2nd Fl. Daeyoung Bld., 139 Youngdeungpo-2-ga, Youngdeungpo-ku, Seoul 150-032 Korea