Metalworkers to go ahead with walkout this week
Yonhap 2007/06/25
Metalworkers to go ahead with walkout this week
By Kim Young-gyo
SEOUL, June 25 (Yonhap) — Unionized metalworkers said Monday they will push ahead with a planned five-day walkout starting Monday, saying a proposed free trade deal between South Korea and the United States will jeopardize their job security.
The Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU) has said it will stage the nationwide strike this week to protest the free trade agreement (FTA). Seoul and Washington are scheduled to sign the deal by June 30 for ratification by their respective legislative bodies, possibly next year.
The 150,000-member union fears the free trade deal would lead to the relocation of many South Korean plants to developing countries and create massive layoffs in the country.
The government warned last week that stern measures would be taken against what it called an illegal political action with no connection to labor conditions.
"The strike they planned is clearly illegal, and they know it," Labor Minister Lee Sang-soo said in an interview with a local radio station early Monday. "The government will not tolerate any action that completely disregards the law or the public’s power."
The Korea Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), one of the country’s two major umbrella unions, supported the strike by the KMWU.
"The strike is guaranteed by the constitution as a basic legal right of laborers, when it is aiming at the nullification or revision of laws defining labor conditions," the KCTU said in a statement Monday.
"If the government suppresses the anti-FTA strike, the KCTU will go on a general strike."
The metalworkers will begin with a two-hour daily strike from Monday through Wednesday, followed by four-hour and six-hour work stoppages on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
The 40,000-member labor union at Hyundai Motor Co., one of the country’s largest unions, has said it will join the strike on Thursday and Friday.
Around 3,000 to 5,000 workers are expected to join the strikes for the first three days, and the number will likely grow to 57,000 across the country later this week, union leaders said.
