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FKTU President Kim Dong-man

With the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) officially announcing on Dec. 19 its boycott of the tripartite talks between labor, management and government, labor and government relations have entered a phase of conflict with no end in sight. This also means that the major compromise reached by the three parties on Sep. 15, 2015 - after a year of challenging negotiations that frequently broke down and resumed following the FKTU’s agreement to join the tripartite discussions in Aug. 2014 - has become a worthless scrap of paper.

It appears likely that South Korean labor groups will be intensifying their struggle against the government.

“There’s no point in sitting down to talk with a government that makes a practice of breaking its promises and violating its agreements,” said FKTU President Kim Dong-man during the press conference on Tuesday at which he officially announced the FKTU’s rejection of the compromise. “As of today, the FKTU will be switching from a framework of negotiations into full conflict mode to combat the government and the ruling party’s policies of so-called labor reform, which will only hurt the labor market.”

In a word, the FKTU is flipping the switch from negotiations to labor action.

The FKTU is planning to begin with a series of aggressive lawsuits. The “dual guidelines” that the government is trying to push through - related to allowing the termination of poorly performing employees and relaxing the requirements for changing workplace rules - are no more than administrative rules that fly in the face of the Labor Act, which takes precedence over them, the FKTU argues. As such, it plans to file various lawsuits and constitutional petitions to keep these guidelines from taking effect.

It is even possible that the FKTU will actively cooperate with South Korea’s other major coalition of unions, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).

“The FKTU’s decision will be a watershed point that blocks the harmful labor reforms planned by the Park administration,” said a statement released on Tuesday by a joint labor action body consisting of the metalworkers’ unions associated with the KCTU and the FKTU, among others. “The FKTU’s president should attend the decision-making meeting of the KCTU that will take place on Jan. 23 to immediately initiate discussions about ways to take joint action.”

The FKTU is planning to create more specific plans for labor action through internal mechanisms including its central executive committee and its delegate convention.

Especially considering that the next parliamentary election will be held on Apr. 13 - just three months away - it is becoming more likely that the labor issue will receive even more attention as a political issue.

As labor activists bash the Park administration’s plans for labor reform under the slogans “easy termination” and “irregular work for your whole life” and the government and ruling party counter by criticizing labor’s moves as “an irresponsible rejection of the agreement” and “organizational selfishness,” the battle for public opinion is set to get even hotter.

Organized labor remains a force to be reckoned with in South Korea. The KCTU and the FKTU have 1.47 million members, according to government estimates.

If the two umbrella unions put all their energy into an organized push to defeat certain candidates in the election, this would pose a considerable risk to the government and the ruling party.

“We’re going to make an organized effort to bring citizens to the polls to bring down anti-labor candidates and parties, especially in voting districts in Seoul and its suburbs where the race is expected to be close,” Kim said.

But the government is not likely to abandon its current plans to reorganize the labor market.

During Park’s press conference at the beginning of the year, she made what appeared to be a conciliatory gesture. This was when she asked the National Assembly in an extraordinary session to pass four of the five labor laws she had originally wanted, while not insisting on the fifth bill, which deals with temporary work. But then on Jan. 18, Park personally signed a petition organized by business groups hoping to collect 10 million signatures calling for the passage of the labor relations bills and other legislation designed to help the economy.

“Given that the labor reforms are taking longer than planned, the parties in the negotiations - namely, government, labor, and management - must not waver in swiftly implementing the dual guidelines and other pending reforms,” Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Ki-Kweon told the press on Jan. 12.

This is why some think that the FKTU’s rejection of the grand compromise in the tripartite discussions will only cause the government to adopt an even more unilateral approach.

By Noh Hyun-woong and Jeon Jong-hwi, staff reporters

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