CFMEU stages Korean solidarity action

BY IGGY KIM

SYDNEY — The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Engineering Union organised a protest outside the South Korean consulate on June 20, in solidarity with the Korean Construction Transportation Trade Union, which organises ready-mix-concrete truck drivers.

The protesters condemned the South Korean President Kim Dae-jung regime's attacks the KCTTU and other South Korean workers. They held placards demanding that he resign. CFMEU representative Karen Iles called on all trade unionists to support the KCTTU's struggle for recognition of the union, overtime rates, Sundays off, repeal of individual agreements and better pay.

The South Korean labour ministry has officially registered the union but the ready-mix-concrete industry bosses claim the workers, as owner-drivers, are self-employed and thereby ineligible for union rights. To clamp down on the KCTTU the bosses have unleashed paid thugs to attack union members, resulting in a large number of seriously injured workers.

While taking no action against the companies blatant breach of industrial relations law, the South Korean government has used cops in violent attacks against protesting KCTTU workers. On June 20, 1900 riot cops from 16 units stormed a KCTTU tent embassy in front of the National Assembly building.

When some of the 300 or so workers sought shelter by locking themselves in their trucks and cars, the police smashed in the windows with hammers, causing a number of injuries. The tent embassy started on May 25, as an escalation of a strike that began in early April.

From GLW issue 453