At least 200,000 Korean workers employed in nearly 200 companies, resumed their general strike on Jan. 6 after a five-day recess during the New Year.
The strike, led by the outlawed Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), began on Dec. 26 to protest action by the Korean parliament eliminating the traditional life-time guarantee of employment and allowing employers to replace strikers. KCTU leaders vow that the strike will continue until the law is repealed and are ignoring orders that they appear before government prosecutors for questioning, a possible first step toward their arrest.
Hua Yoon Gu, a deputy chairman of the KCTU, dismissed pleas by Korean President Kim Young Sam to end the strike. Hua said the government's promise on Jan 6 to soften the legislation and improve welfare benefits for the unemployed "lacked content and didn't show any vision ... He didn't offer any methods for settling the strike so the strike will go on."
While Kim made no proposals for ending the strike, he pointedly refrained from any threat to use force or jail union leaders to break the strike. According to the New York Times, Kim's silence on this question is because the strikers are thought to enjoy "some public support." Other observers report that the arrest of union leaders will "in all probability, strengthen the resolve of the strikers." In 1993, a thousand riot police stormed the Hyundai factory to break a strike and arrested 60 workers.
At its height on Dec. 27, nearly 275,000 workers, including members of the rival government-recognized Korean Federation of Trade Unions (KFTU), had joined the strike. Although the KFTU did not call on its members to join the strike when it resumed, its leaders announced that the KFTU would join the strike if the government does not act to repeal the new laws which are scheduled to take effect on March 1.
The KCTU represents about 500,000 union members while the larger - and less militant - KFTU claims a membership of approximately 1.2 million. Analysts estimates that the value of lost production due to the strike had already exceeded a half billion dollars by Jan. 7.
Trade union organizations in other countries have responded with solidarity acts and statements. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called upon President Kim to veto the legislation while the World Federation of Trade Unions called upon "trade unions in all countries to express active solidarity with the working people and their trade union organizations." by demanding a repeal of all the legislation in question, to grant immediate legal status to the KCTU and to cease all prosecution of union leaders and activists. (See complete text of AFL-CIO statement page 6.)
When it was accepted into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), South Korea agreed to bring its 43-year-old labor code into compliance with standards of the International Labor organization that guarantee freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining. In an earlier version of the legislation the KCTU would have been legalized on March 1, but that has now been postponed for three years.
On Jan. 6 nearly 20,000 workers and student sympathizers rallied in Seoul demanding Kim's ouster and repeal of the new laws. Although riot police were on the scene, no arrests were made.
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