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Still of a video of the incident shows police officers using 1-meter-long clubs to bludgeon a unionist belonging to the Federation of Korean Metalworkers’ Trade Unions during a sit-in on May 31. (still from FKTU video)

A labor union official was taken to hospital after being struck on the head with clubs by police forcibly bringing him down from an aerial protest.

The police insisted that they had no choice but to use force in the face of the protesting official’s intense resistance. But the union criticized the actions as a clear-cut case of excessive force.

According to accounts Wednesday from the Jeonnam Provincial Police and the Federation of Korean Metalworkers’ Trade Unions (FKMTU, affiliated with the Federation of Korean Trade Unions), four police officers and two firefighters used two ladder trucks at 5:30 that morning to reach an aerial protest site 7 meters off the ground, which had been set up on a six-lane road in front of the welfare center at the POSCO steel plant in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province.

In the process, they struck protesting union secretary-general Kim Jun-yeong on the head with 1-meter-long plastic batons for a period lasting roughly one minute.

After Kim collapsed, the police used the ladder trucks to bring him down to the ground. He was subsequently taken to a hospital in Suncheon, where he is currently undergoing treatment for bleeding from his head. The injuries are reportedly not life-threatening.

The “Gwangyang Regional Mechanic-Metal-Transportation Labor Union,” established by workers at POSCO’s subcontractor Poun, has been carrying out a sit-in protest outside POSCO’s Gwangyang steel mill since April 2022, calling for wage negotiations and the end of unfair labor practices.

When POSCO appeared reluctant to engage in wage negotiations, Kim left the site of the sit-in at around 9:20 on Monday night to build a structure in the middle of the adjoining road which he then climbed and continued to protest from. Unlike the original protest site, there was no prior notification of this new structure.

Materials released by the police say that officers had used billy clubs as Kim was swinging a machete (measuring 42 centimeters in length) and steel pipes. Lee Ji-hyeon, the spokesperson for the FKTU, refuted this claim.

“Secretary-General Kim did not wield a machete, and only swung a steel pipe to block ladder trucks’ access [to the structure]. He did not hit police officers,” the spokesperson said. “We intend to examine whether the police resorted to illegal actions in the process of arrest and commence legal procedures.”

Kim Jun-yeong, the unionist who was beaten by police officers, is transferred to a hospital after losing blood from his head on May 31. (still from FKTU video)

One day prior, on Tuesday, Kim Man-jae, the president of the FKMTU, was arrested while visiting the sit-in after spraying water from a bottle at police preparing to break up the protest. Police cited obstruction of justice as grounds for the arrest.

In the process of arresting the federation president, the police pushed him to the ground and kneeled on the back of his neck while placing him in handcuffs, sparking an outcry from union members.

By Kim Yong-hee, Gwangju correspondent

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