Eva Cheng
The illegal Korean Government Employees Union (KGEU) plans to press ahead with a general strike on November 15 despite having the strike ballot among its 140,000 members seriously disrupted by police.
The KGEU had planned a general strike for November 1 to defend the right of public sector workers to organise and collectively bargain. With ballots at 207 union chapters scheduled for November 9-10, the strike has been put back.
Apart from physically blocking KGEU members from entering the polling booths, police searched and confiscated documents from 35 KGEU branches and confiscated ballots and ballot boxes from 38 others, and 186 KGEU members were arrested, according to the November 10 Korea Herald.
Meanwhile, South Korea's two main trade union federations, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) have also jointly called for a general strike to counter the government's anti-worker labour "reform" package. Banning public sector workers from striking is only one element of the package, which also seeks to limit the rights of "irregular" (casual) workers.
The KCTU says it has 700,000 members and the FKTU is even bigger. The general strike will take place on the day the ruling and opposition parties meet to discuss the bill, expected in late November or early December.
Chosun Ilbo reported on November 9 that the KCTU had held membership ballots between October 25 and November 6 on whether to go ahead with the strike, obtaining 208,000 votes in favour from the 306,000 members participating.
From Green Left Weekly, November 17, 2004.
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