Labor Trends – Labor InFocus

1. FKTU focus on the upcoming presidential election

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) held a meeting of industrial representatives in order to endorse its action plan for the upcoming presidential election, following the Constitutional Court’s impeachment trial of President Park on 10 March.

[Table 1] Major contents of the FKTU’s action plan for the presidential election

Dates	Activities
Early April	Meeting of industrial representatives to decide their favored candidate in the presidential election
10 ~ 25 April	Union members’ votes across the nation
26 April ~ 8 May	Declaration of its support for presidential candidate by industrial unions, and joint activities for presidential election campaign
1 May	National Workers’ Rally

The FKTU has sent out its guideline to each affiliated union, requiring them to post hanging banner for voting at workplaces and to hold a special membership meeting for voting. In particular, the FKTU recommended conducting e-voting via SMS, ARS and internet in case where offline voting is not available because of shift work. Besides, the FKTU plans to hold outdoor rallies and TV debates, and request preliminary presidential candidates to reflect the FKTU’s proposals into their election pledges. On 22 March, the FKTU invited preliminary presidential candidates to its ‘union representatives meeting’ in which more than 5,000 members attended in order to hear each candidate’s stance on labor-related policies.

After then, the FKTU sent its questionnaire on election pledges to each preliminary presidential candidate on 24 March. Based on candidates’ answer and analysis of policy debate, the FKTU will announce its policy evaluation report for each candidate in early April.

2. KCTU try to scrap labor reform bills in the presidential election campaign

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) held a press conference on 16 March, and announced its policy proposal and action plan for the upcoming presidential election. Under the slogan of ‘From unfair society which chaebol dominate toward fair society where workers are respected,’ the KCTU declared its five major policy proposals for the next presidential election.

[ Table 2] Major contents of the KCTU’s five major policy proposals

	Main contents
Cleaning the slate of the President Park administration	To imprison former President Park To release the arrested KCTU president Han Sanggyun and labor activists, and clear of any charges To scrap four labor reform bills as well as the government’s labor guidelines To secure the legal status of the government employees’ union and teachers’ union
Chaebol reform	To claw back companies’ internal reserve through higher corporate tax To require companies to participate in the industrial collective bargaining and to directly negotiate with partner firms’ unions
Labor laws reform	To abolish the time-off system and the bargaining representative union system To strengthen conditions for lockout and penalties for violation To restrict the scope of the government’s claim for damages resulted by assembly and demonstration To ensure the continuous collective agreement and employment when changing subcontractors
Reduce the use of non-regular workers & increase the minimum wage to KRW 10,000	To require employers to directly hire regular workers for continuous and permanent jobs To regulate reasons to use the fixed-term workers To expand the legal status of primary contractors as employers and recognize those in special types of employment as legal workers To raise the minimum hourly wage to KRW 10,000 and set up an ordinance on living wage
Reform government agencies and strengthen public service	To ensure the government employees and teachers’ political activities To introduce the presidential runoff voting system To terminate the government’s plan to privatize the railroad, medical, and energy service To establish labor courts

The KCTU plans to promote its policy proposals actively through outdoor rallies (March~April) and all-out strikes (the end of June ~ the beginning of July). On top of this, the KCTU is likely to negotiate with the government with the view to reflecting its proposals into national agenda after the presidential election.

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