Actions against Retrogressive Revision of Labor Law
South Korean workers take to the streets to defend their rights to live in bitter cold unprecedented in this year. In recent, south Korean workers’ dissatisfaction with the government are growing higher as south Korea suffers political volatility and social chaos. Upset by this, Park Geun-hye released a statement and threatened the national assembly and opposition party to bull through a bill on labor reform and admonished the workers to share pains and cooperate. “Revitalization of economy” and “economic reform” advertised by the south Korean authorities are sheer sophism to enrich the conglomerate but left millions on the poverty line. Some days ago, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions proclaimed the abrogation of “agreement with workers, business and government” and suspension of dialogue in protest against the south Korean authorities that have made desperate bid to ram through a bill on retrogressive revision of the labor law through the national assembly, regardless of the workers’ intention. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions opened an emergency meeting on Jan. 22 in protest against the authorities' announcement of the guidelines for the retrogressive revision of the labor law and decided to launch an indefinite general strike from Jan. 25 The KCTU opened a rally to declare a general strike in Seoul Plaza on Jan 23 in which it said that the south Korean authorities’ “double guidelines” for the retrogressive revision of the labor law is made to let the business groups to dismissal and wage cut. The KCTU asserted the current regime’s economic policy advocating for the business tycoons met failure and continued that the government and business groups are going to pass the buck for the economic slump to the workers and common people. More than 5 000 unionists took part in the rally. The FKTU decided to hold a meeting to discuss the guidelines on Jan. 25. The south Korean authorities branded the KCTU’s general strike as an illegal and said it would crack down on it.
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