Police today arrested two leaders of a radical trade union
group for staging an illegal protest against new labor
regulations.
About 600 members of the Korea Confederation of Trade
Unions -- one of Korea's umbrella labor groups -- held a
demonstration in front of the National Assembly building on
Tuesday.
Violent protestors clashed with riot police as they tried
to enter the Assembly building and attempted to set police
buses on fire. They blocked the road causing traffic
congestion.
The government-led labor bills passed the parliamentary
labor committee last week.
Police arrested its vice president Huh Yong-gu and
organization director Park Min for violating the demonstration
law. Another 25 members were booked without detention.
The KCTU argued that the police were excessively
suppressing their demonstration rights without a justifiable
reason.
"We will continue to fight against the retrogressive labor
bills despite police oppression of the leadership," the labor
group said in a press release today.
The radical labor group has been under fire from the public
over its disruptive protests and strikes over the past few
months.
Following strong assertion of its hard-liners, the KCTU has
called for a sixth general strike beginning Nov. 15.
Striking unionists demand the government immediately scrap
its new labor regulations and better protect temporary
workers.
The labor bills had been signed off by representatives from
labor unions, employers and the government on Sept. 11 without
the participation of the KCTU.
The three parties had agreed to delay two of the most
controversial measures -- excluding full-time union officers
from company payrolls and permitting multiple trade unions at
a single company -- until the end of 2009.
The KCTU, however, wants immediate implementation of the
multiple union system and insists that the issue of paying
full-time union officers should be left to individual
companies.
The labor group is planning more demonstrations and has
vowed to keep up its general strike, as the Assembly prepares
to settle the labor bills in the upcoming plenary session this
week.
By Shin Hae-in (hayney@heraldm.com)
2006.12.13
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