Government interference on union voting and multi-union bills brought up..

Public Services International, a global union federation of public workers, has sent out a press release complaining about the Korean government's interference with a few unions voting to join the KCTU.

The minister of Public Administration and Security has already sent down a “Directive on performance of duty regarding ballot on merger of 3 government employees unions” to government bodies including local governments. Through this directive, the Ministry has ordered government bodies to ban all kinds of union activities relating to the ballot, including voting during working hours and publicising the ballot. In addition, PSI has been informed of concerns about police raiding the voting areas.

This makes you wonder on how involved the government has been with the recent mass of secessions from the KCTU, doesn't it?

In other news, recent debate has flared up over some thirteen year old labor bills that have not been implemented yet. These bills will allow multiple unions join one workforce and prevent full-time union workers from getting payrolls from the company.

I am generally not a fan of full-time paid union officials at workplaces. From my experience, these officials generally do not advocate worker's positions very well and are the first to give in to management. I always thought the best union representatives are those who actually work at the place they are organizing at and are knowledgeable about the conditions their fellow workers are dealing with. I have less experience with this than other labor issues, so if anyone disagrees please feel free to comment on it.

I also have a strong distaste for multi-union setups at single workplaces. Most unions that operate on this organizing tactic are often some of the most corrupt, racist and sexist unions around. Many of the negative stereotypes associated with unions generally stem from these type of unions (not saying industrial unions have the same problem, but they are more common in craft union setup in my experience). It is also a nightmare to organize these type of workplaces as unions get into "turf" wars and not everyone operates on the same program. Workers are disconnected with other workers and its easier to play "divide and conquer" when trying to mobilize. The last thing Korean labor needs is more fractures in an already heavily sectarian movement