hankyoreh

Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions hold a memorial rally outside of the presidential office in Seoul’s Yongsan District on May 2, the day that a district leader of their affiliated construction workers union died after self-immolation. (Kim Gyoung-ho/The Hankyoreh)

The ongoing confrontation between the Yoon Suk-yeol administration and labor circles over the government banging the drum of “rule of law in labor-management relations” has taken a turn for the worse after a unionized construction worker set himself on fire on International Workers’ Day.

In a situation where a series of industrial unions under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) have announced strikes, the government’s stance of isolating labor and attempting to use public opinion against it shows no signs of change, which is forecast to turn relations between labor and the state even icier.

While KCTU was already carrying out an aggressive struggle against the administration before the self-immolation of Yang, an official at the Korean Construction Workers\' Union (KCWU), the incident has spurred labor on in their protests.

“After a year in power, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration has retrogressed in several ways,” KCTU spokesperson Han Sang-jin told the Hankyoreh. “It was only a matter of time before we called for it [the administration] to step down.”

“Our tone has not changed because of the passing of a fellow union member,” Han added.

The KCWU is carrying out an expanded 5,000-strong rally by union cadres near the office of the president in Yongsan District, Seoul on Thursday.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the union held a candlelight culture festival outside the War Memorial of Korea near the president’s office in memory of the construction unionist who died after setting himself alight.

Now that industrial unions and confederations under the umbrella of the KCTU have announced plans for a series of strikes, mending labor-state relations will prove difficult.

The Korean Metal Workers\' Union was the first to announce a general strike for May 31. The KCWU has announced a plan for 100,000 union members to go on strike in July, and the KCTU also plans to enter into an alliance-wide “anti-Yoon Suk-yeol” general strike for July. This will include strikes by industry and agenda and general strike rallies over a period of two weeks, as well as large-scale daily street protests.

However, the government’s determination to maintain its labor-exclusionary stance that champions the rule of law has not wavered in the face of such action.

In a meeting with the Hankyoreh at the National Assembly on Thursday, Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Jung-sik called the self-immolation incident “regrettable” and stated, “We will engage in labor reforms so that the weak are protected and there are no injustices in relation to problems in the Korean labor market or systems of labor-management relations.”

The construction worker who died by self-immolation on Tuesday had criticized the unreasonable raids by investigative authorities and complained of injustices, but Lee spoke only of labor reforms without touching on these issues. Thirteen search and seizure operations have been carried out on the KCWU since the end of last year, with 950 persons investigated and 15 detained.

Even in the wake of the self-immolation, the government and ruling party have recommitted to their policy of attacking unions.

At a meeting of its special committee on labor reforms on Tuesday, the People Power Party announced they would “root out” the practice of heredity succession of employment at unions.

“The obsession with protecting vested interests and the traditional method of fighting through habitual illegal actions and violence have lost the trust of the people,” People Power Party floor leader Yun Jae-ok said in the meeting.

Experts agree there is a high chance that labor-management conflict will lead to heated clashes in the future.

“I think we’re bound to see a conflict between labor and the government if the administration refuses to bear any responsibility,” said Park Myung-joon, a research fellow at the Korea Labor Institute. “Especially if labor uses this latest incident as a catalyst to call for the administration to step down, it could lead to a real clash between labor and the administration.”

Jung Heung-jun, a professor of management at Seoul Technical University, shared similar thoughts.

“It wasn’t this bad even when Park Geun-hye was in power,” said Jung. “With the major Sept. 15 [2015] tripartite agreement between labor, management, and the state, there had been consistent discussions with labor unions, but because the current administration doesn’t recognize labor unions at all, it won’t be easy to find the opportunity to turn around relations between labor and the administration.”

By Kim Hae-jeong, staff reporter

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