In defending of labor rights

In defending of labor rights

A general strike in demand of the abolition of part-time jobs, hike of minimum salaries and the achievement of the right to trade union movement was launched under the sponsorship of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions in Seoul on June 30. 

Attending there were about 60 000 part-timers of the trade unions including the Trade Union of Public Transport and Service, the Metal Workers Trade Union, the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’Union and the Korean Government Employees affiliated to the KCTU.  

Speakers said at the general strike held at the Gwanghwamun Plaza that it is a decisive time to abolish deep-rooted evils and reform society.

The part-timers have been classed as day labor from the past regimes and they have waited for a good opportunity of employment, far from speaking about their salaries, they said.   

Now the present regime has asked the part-timers to wait and they have had a long wait for the regime’s answer, however, there is no change, they lamented.  

They took part in the general strike to tell the new generation that wait has not brought any change, hand down the society free from part-time jobs and to be legitimate workers, they noted.  

They said that they would carry on the action to abolish the part-time jobs. 

After the end of the rally, they marched through the Chongno Street carrying slogan–boards written “Total abolition of part-time job”. They held another rally at which they expressed their will to strive for the right to live.

Representatives of the trade union urged the south Korean authorities to ensure the right to have a meal with the minimum salaries, the right to work without anxiety about discrimination and employment and the right to freely make trade union activities.

The trade unions under the KCTU held rallies in several places of Seoul on July 1.

The south Korean labor circle decided to hold mass rally on July 8 in Seoul to take 10 000 won of minimum wage, demand withdrawal of THAAD deployment and punishment of those responsible for death of peasant Baek Nam-gi. It also declared to launch intensive action to defend the right to labor.