How can the KCTU claim to represent the best interests of Korean workers if they are advocating for foreign illegal immigrants who broke the law to take jobs from Koreans?:
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), one of the country’s two major umbrella labor unions with more than 1 million members, is moving to embrace undocumented foreigners here in an attempt to broaden its coalition, labor officials said.
During an event hosted by the KCTU at its headquarters in Seoul on July 25, senior officials discussed ways to strengthen the rights of “all migrant workers.” They said there should be a fundamental reform of the government system of handling the migrant laborers who work here without valid visas. Abolishing the deportation policy targeting such people and giving them the right to stay were among the ideas suggested and advocated at the event.
Here is twisted logic on this from the KCTU:
The spokesman’s comment comes after Udaya Rai, head of a migrant workers’ union under the KCTU, said at the KCTU event that the government should abandon its policy of cracking down on undocumented migrant workers.
“The policy of cracking down on and deporting undocumented immigrants begets countless of human rights violations and stirs up anxiety and fear,” he said. “Exploitation and violence are justified just because they are undocumented. There should be a policy to give them the right to stay in order to end this vicious circle.”
You can read more at the link, but should authorities not arrest bank robbers because it stirs “anxiety and fear” in these criminals as well? If you commit criminal activity you should be arrested and illegal immigration is a crime. If the KCTU doesn’t like the fact it is a crime then change the law to have open borders where anyone can come in and take Korean jobs. Good luck with getting the Korean public to support that.
I don’t think the KCTU is going to win any public sympathy by keeping people up all night with their protests:
A Cabinet meeting led by President Yoon Suk Yeol is held at the presidential office in Seoul on May 23, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
President Yoon Suk Yeol slammed a major labor group Tuesday for its overnight street rally last week, saying its actions infringed on people’s freedoms, disturbed the public order and will not be tolerated by the people.
Yoon made the remark during a Cabinet meeting, referring to a rally staged by the Korean Construction Workers’ Union in protest of the government’s labor policies from Tuesday to Wednesday.
An estimated 25,000 union members took part in the rally in downtown Seoul, causing massive traffic congestion and leading to some 80 noise complaints being filed with the police.
The union falls under the umbrella Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).
“Our Constitution guarantees the freedom of assembly and demonstration, and as president, I, too, have respected this,” Yoon said.
“However, guaranteeing the freedom of assembly and demonstration does not mean infringements on another person’s freedoms and basic rights, or acts disturbing the public order, are justified.”
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
The KCTU did not mind when the Korean left was demanding the prosecution and jailing of former conservative Presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak, but don’t like it when their political leader Lee Jae-myung is being prosecuted. Ironically they are condemning President Yoon for the prosecution when during the last administration he was the chief prosecutor that put President Park in jail which they championed. So what you can take from all this is that they only want conservatives prosecuted:
Members of a major South Korean umbrella union rallied in downtown Seoul on Saturday to condemn the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, jamming traffic in the neighborhood.
Some 13,000 union members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, one of the country’s two major umbrella labor organizations, held multiple rallies in Daehangno, Saejongno and Jongno, in protest against “prosecution-backed dictatorship.”
During the rallies, the protestors said the country’s civil livelihood, democracy and labor fell to the worst conditions under the Yoon administration in less than one year of his presidency.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, what is further hypocritical about the KCTU is that they are calling the Yoon administration a “dictatorship” while their union and the political left has been linked to North Korean spies. North Korea is a real dictatorship which the KCTU says nothing about.
It is pretty clear that the Yoon administration has declared war on the violent and pro-North Korean KCTU. Here is the latest front he has opened up on them:
Eradicating illegal practices at construction sites has been a central part of labor reform, one of the Yoon administration’s top three areas of reform along with education and pensions, the presidential office said.
Since late last year, the land ministry has run a designated team to respond to violence at construction sites while the police have operated a 200-day special crackdown period, it added.
The government’s hard-line stance comes as construction unions affiliated with the country’s two major umbrella labor organizations — the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions — have been accused of coercing employers to hire their union members for construction jobs.
“Militant labor unions with vested rights continue to overtly carry out illegal actions at construction sites, such as demanding money and goods, forcing hiring and obstructing construction,” Yoon said during the Cabinet meeting.
“As a result, workers are losing their jobs and construction is being poorly done. The damage is being passed on to the people, with delays in the opening of new elementary schools and move-ins to new apartments,” he said.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but if the KCTU loses its government subsidies and has to give up their extortion practices this is going to greatly hinder them financially. On top of that the KCTU is being investigated for their part in a North Korea spy ring by the government.
Here is the least surprising news of the day:
When South Korea’s largest labor umbrella group called for an end to the alliance with the U.S. and conscription during weekend rallies before Aug. 15 National Liberation Day last year, some observers questioned what those demands have to do with improving workers’ rights.
Korea Times
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) and police now suspect that the messages chanted in the Seoul streets might have come directly from Pyongyang and that it was orchestrated by regime sympathizers engaged in espionage activities here at its behest.
According to civic groups and other sources on Tuesday, NIS officials and police have been investigating allegations that some liberal activists, including party officials, helped promote anti-government activities after taking orders from North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party.
Over the past several weeks, the investigators have raided the homes and offices of the key suspects in Jeju, Jinju, Jeonju and Changwon.
It all began in July 2017 when a former high-ranking official of the Progressive Party allegedly met a North Korean agent in Siem Reap of Cambodia, where the South Korean was told to create a secret organization on Jeju Island and was informed how to communicate with North Korean officials.
It is alleged that the official later conspired with two other activists to organize a group, through which they helped stage anti-U.S. protests and supported certain election candidates. They are suspected of communicating with North Korean officials for more than five years. Taking control of “the Jeju 4.3 unification committee” under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), the anti-U.S. protest organizer, suspending military exercises between Seoul and Washington and protesting the procurement of high tech weapons are among the orders they allegedly received from the North.
You can read more at the link, but to me this news is not surprising and according to the article the NIS began this investigation five years ago when President Moon was in power. However, only recently were they allowed to move forward with an official investigation. It is pretty clear that the Moon administration did not want to go after their own liberal supporters and the Yoon administration is going after them as part of their efforts to retaliate against North Korean provocations.
