Multi-union law delayed, alliance over..

Last Friday, a last minute deal between the FKTU and Labor Ministry was reached that delayed implementation of the new labor laws until 2010. You can read about the deal here. Very few people are happy with what happened, from both business side and the KCTU. The KCTU has announced it will hold demonstrations against the new tripartite agreement. The Hankyoreh has a short interview with the KCTU chairman right here. Korea Times also has a decent article citing the breakup here. The KCTU was not aware of any negotiations and seems received the news the same way I did on Friday, by hearing it from the news.

Overall, this is a disaster and the worst realistic scenario imaginable. Not only is the labor movement completely blocked, it looks like this is going to be one of those issues that will tie up the movement for a while. This issue will be going on for around 15 years when this labor revision takes affect (assuming it passes the National Assembly). Out of all the issues within the Korean labor movement, this is not something we need to be spending 15 years on, especially when the government is still refusing to do its job on the irregular worker issue or when numerous major strikes are failing due to lack of support and state violence.

In other news, Korail is going to take major action against union members during the weeklong strike that took place about two weeks ago. The Labor Ministry also continued its war against public employee unions by refusing the application of the new integrated civil servant union, demanding more information on membership rules, how elections are run and demanded the chairman to send in a stool sample to show that his digestive system is not red. Some scotch sounds good right now

General strike looks inevitable...

Hope all my American readers had a nice holiday, meanwhile a couple major newsworthy events happened over the last few days. The biggest being collapse of last minute talks between the two major labor umbrella unions and the labor ministry.

However, Labor Minister Yim Tae-hee walked out of the conference room in Yeouido, Wednesday, saying, “There will be no more talks.” Lim is the point man for President Lee in labor affairs, vowing in public that Korea’s militant union movement is the most backward among advanced nations and poses a major threat to continued economic growth.

The KCTU said Thursday that they were not ready to back down.

“The government and businessmen give nothing but pain and toil to people. It’s time to hear the music,” it said in a press release. KCTU leader Lim Sung-kyu said that the organization was ready to go on strike.

The FKTU has already begin throwing its weigh around by occupying the GNP's headquarters Friday during a sit-in. To add more fuel to the fire, the Korean Railway Workers’ Union strike has also started bringing freight shipping in Korea to a stop. Expect more news after the weekend.