All-out Struggle Launched
The Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) announced on June 8 that it will launch an all-out struggle against the Yoon Suk-yeol administration following its decision to boycott a meeting of the Committee on Economic, Social and Labor Affairs under the Presidential Office. Following the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), the FKTU has also refused to engage in dialogue with the government, deciding to take a hard line for a labor struggle.
“If the FKTU continues to refuse to talk with us, we will talk with the Saero Gochim Workers’ Council, a labor union of MZ generation workers, and regional and industry-specific organizations within the FKTU,” said Kim Moon-soo, chairman of the Committee on Economic, Social, and Labor Affairs. At the third plenary meeting of the Minimum Wage Committee, which was held amid a worsening conflict between labor union organizations and the Korean government, the labor community demanded the release of a high-ranking official of the Federation of Korean Metalworkers' Trade Unions (FKMTU) who was arrested on charges of special obstruction of justice.
“We will launch a full-scale struggle against the regime that is hostile to the entire Korean labor world and only represses laborers,” said Kim Dong-myung, chairman of the FKTU, in a press conference in front of the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul. “We will not beg for a dialogue with the government that does not recognize the labor community as a partner in dialogue, but thoroughly disregards laborers,” Kim said, adding, “Our struggle to judge the regime will be persistent and relentless. We will win whatever it takes.”
The FKTU held an emergency executive committee meeting the previous day and decided not to go to the meeting of the Committee on Economic, Social and Labor Affairs under the Presidential Office. The FKTU, which had previously formed a joint front with the KCTU against the government’s push for more transparency in labor unions’ accounting practices, decided not to participate in the meeting of the Committee on Economic, Social and Labor Affairs in protest of the detention of the secretary general of the FKMTU on May 31.
Kim considered the FKTU’s decision to boycott the meeting of the Committee on Economic, Social and Labor Affairs “hard-line thinking of a few labor union leaders.” “We will continue to talk with the FKTU,” Kim said at the Seoul National University Alumni Association’s breakfast forum at The Plaza Hotel in Seoul. “On June 7, we contacted the FKTU’s regional and industrial organizations. If the FKTU continues to refuse to talk and continue to stick to its struggle policy, we will continue to talk with the Saero Gochim Workers’ Council or regional and industrial organizations within the FKTU.”
The business community, on the other hand, called for the introduction of a differential minimum wage system where minimum wages vary by industry. “The minimum wage in Korea is 62 percent of Korea’s median wage. It is one of the highest in the world,” said Ryu Ki-jeong, executive director of the Korea Enterprises Federation. “Korea needs a differential minimum wage system in consideration of the tough economic situation.”