News updates..

First, I must apologize for the lack of posts. I have been dealing with personal issues lately that kept me out of the loop for the short bit. Fortunately, there has been some notable events in the last week or so that are worth looking into:

-First the labor ministry has imposed a ban on certain ceremonies that civil servants can do during their official events. Usage of folk labor songs and chants are common at these events which apparently antagonizes the government and people.

-The Korea Railway Workers' Union has voted for a strike.

-Minu, a migrant worker activist from Nepal, has officially been deported from Korea. Minu was deported for his involvement in political activities which non-citizens are restricted from doing under Korean law (though they are fairly vague on what a political activity is). I haven't paid to much attention to migrant worker issues on this blog so far but I am going to try to keep a better eye on it from now on.

-The NHRCK is requesting an investigation on the possibility of police brutality during the Ssangyong occupation.

Now, moving away from labor related news...

-We are all aware of DPRK defectors.. but have you heard of defectors from ROK to the DPRK?

-In more positive news not only has the ROK government came out of the recession, but had the highest quarterly GDP growth since 2002.

-The ROK government will restart the sending aid to DPRK after a series of backdoor talks between President Lee and DPRK officials. Does this mean President Lee is a in-closet Communist?

-There was a few elections this week for some seats in the parliament and to the surprise of a few, the GNP did not do well.

-Probably the biggest news however is that the Constitutional Court has made a ruling on the media bill reforms. While they state that the GNP acted inappropriately and violated the voting rules, they will not overturn the passing of the bills. This ruling is fairly similar to what happened during the Roh impeachment issue where the court ruled that Roh was out of line, but did not throw him out office. As I mentioned in a previous post, this should have been expected.

Ssangyong news, KTU in trouble and media union news...

Thursday, the leaders of the striking union at the Ssangyong factory have reopened talks with the management on ending the strike. This is probably going to be the last time the two sides will talk before courts might liquidate the company completely in mid August. So far the management has offered to cut back on layoffs and reassign some people to other jobs, rehire most of the workforce by 2012 slowly and help find jobs for other works. The Union has refused and has demanded that the company send 2/3rd on "unpaid leave" so that they will face lesser job cuts. Either way, the Union has seem to have won some major victories for the workers (when originally around 900 were being laidoff). How far they will take it is up to them.

In other news, the Ministry of Education is planning to sack 89 teachers, including the leader Korean Teachers and Education Union (KTU) Jung Jin-hoo, for their collective action in signing a joint declaration against government policies on July 19th. There are strict laws against civil servants from doing collective actions in Korea and this is just an example of this. It doesn't help that KTU is well known as one of the most militant and left wing unions south of the 38th parallel.

Finally, the courts in Seoul have told the police that they cannot hold Choi Sang-jae, leader National Union of Media Workers, anymore. Choi was arrested earlier this week for illegal strikes and trying to break into the National Assembly. The court ruled that there was no risk for him fleeing the area or destroying evidence, so there was no need to hold him captive any longer.

Ssangyong update and other news...

There have been several news updates the last couple days and I unfortunately do not have time to comment on all of them, so here is a quick summary:

-The union at the Ssangyong plant and the management are going to meet later today to discuss ending the current occupation.

-Former Director of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, Kim Sang-wan, is going to jail for three years for trying to rape a female union member.

-So far 70 DP legislators have handed over letters of resignation to opposition leader Chung Sye-kun who has already announced his resignation in protest of the GNP ramming through the media reform bills. Opposition parties will also begin a 100-day street protest.

-Many of you have already probably heard of the recent verbal jabs the USA and DPRK have fired at each other at the last ASEAN Regional Forum summit. You might have also heard about that Christian activist that was executed in the DPRK recently. But did you hear about the newest act of defiance within DPRK's borders that is causing a giant crackdown? Korean dramas. Apparently they cannot resist the charms of Rain and Lee Young Ae.

-The ROK is officially the third biggest buyer of US arms behind Israel and Saudi Arabia.

-On July 20th, there was some confrontation between police and protesters. The protesters were forming a march in memory of the Yongsan incident.

KCTU calls a general strike..

After nearly months of waiting around and speaking big, the KCTU has finally called for a general strike in solidarity with the Ssangyong workers and in protest of the "MB (Myung-bak) Evil Bills" in the National Assembly on media reform and irregular workers. The strike is go on until only July 24th, so I question how effective they will be. The last General Strike came last spring during the candlelight protests.

The KCTU now also has a lovely photography of the Ssangyong Occupation here. Apparently scabs are also firing things from slingshots at the striking workers according to the KCTU.

It's official...

After months of controversy and strife, the Grand National Party (GNP) has finally rammed through the media reform bills. These bills will increase the amount of stock private groups an own from TV channels. The major fear that opposition parties and progressive groups have is that these TV stations will be bought out by the major corporations of Korea thus creating a oligarchy of television. It is safe to assume that the Cho-Joong-Dong (the three major conservative newspapers in Korea who dominate 58% of the newspaper market) will take out major stock and thus try to influence the news even further.

Though the bill passed the controversy is far from done. Representatives from the Democratic Party has threatened to resign en masse if this is pushed through and are trying to get an injunction to rule the vote illegal (It was voted on twice and you can only vote once on a bill). I do not know what exactly will happen if the Democratic Party resigned from the National Assembly or if an injunction will work. From my understanding of the Korean law system, this would go under the jurisdiction of the Korean Supreme Court.

Either way if there is one bright side to this event it is the fact that the GNP's reign of power is not going to be very long. This media reform was not exactly popular in the first place among the public, and caused Park Geun-hye (who endorsed these bills when she was GNP chairwoman) on procedural grounds (She didn't end up voting because she was blocked out). Then there is that whole media workers strike as well. The GNP, which did poorly at the last round of elections, is probably going to decline further with Park Geun-hye reaping the benefits.

Raids on the Ssangyong plant have begun

Photo courtesy of the JoongAng Daily

Starting Monday, the Korean Police have begin to crack down on the Ssangyong occupation. Workers have fought back by setting up fiery barricades consisting of tires and vehicles and pelting riot police and scabs with slingshots. Two helicopters have begin firing tear gas into the plant. No serious injuries have been reported yet; police and management have been weary of using more confrontational methods in fear of destroying valuable machines and possibly causing another Yongsan type incident. So far there has been a mix of information of how large the police force is being used, with Al Jazeera, the KCTU and JoongAng Daily stating around 3,000 and the Chosun Ilbo stating around 1000.

So far, there have been 2 suicides in relation to the strike. One worker after trying to apply for early retirement and on Monday, a 28 year old wife of one of the striking workers.

After news came in that police had started to advance into the compound, another news came in that wife of KMWU Ssangyong Motors Branch policy director had committed suicide. She was the 28-year old mother of a baby just 8 months old and a four-year old, and was suffering stress and anxiety from receiving subpoenas and warrant for her husband’s arrest. Recently, company managers were known to have made visits to workers’ homes, where only wives and children are present, and threatened family members with imprisonment of their spouses and confiscation of their homes and assets to pay the company back damages claims for the strike. As the union warned several times, and as reality manifests, “dismissals are, in fact, murder”. The death of the unionist’s wife is, in fact, homicide committed by the management and government.

The Korean Metal Workers Union is not the only union in Korea fighting for its life right now; the National Union of Media Workers (NUMW) have begun a general strike against the Grand National Party's attempt to railroad their media "reform" bills that will allow private ownership of news channels. More on that later, until then, read this wonderful article by the JoongAng Daily (Who would reap the benefits of the new bills) on why this "illegal strike" is a bad idea. Meanwhile I will go off and read an article by the Wall Street Journal on why Hugo Chavez is the devil.