President-Elect Cancels Meeting With Union
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
The transition team abruptly canceled the first face-to-face talks between President-elect Lee Myung-bak and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), overshadowing relations between the umbrella union and the incoming government.
The sudden cancellation symbolizes the President-elect's strong will to talk with the union only when they abide by the law, but it embarrassed the KCTU leaders.
The meeting was to be held on Tuesday at the union's headquarters in Seoul to share ideas on some key labor issues including temporary workers, and to seek a substantial breakthrough. But the transition team unilaterally said the scheduled meeting could not take place unless the KCTU head, Lee Seok-haeng, accepted a police request to report to them for questioning.
It is unclear what the exact reason for summoning the KCTU head was, but reportedly it is to do with the union's support for a temporary workers-supported rally, the KCTU said.
``If the transition team intended to hold the meeting based on my acceptance of police questioning, the issue should have been raised at the beginning of negotiations for the meeting,'' said the union head during a press conference, Monday. ``The transition team said nothing about the summons by last Saturday. This decision shows the anachronistic attitude, which prevailed in the 1980s when military dictators ruled the country,'' he said.
Police have issued a ten summons to the KCTU head so far following an unauthorized street rally last June and an alleged Election Law violation in December during his support for Rep. Kwon Young-ghil, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Labor Party.
Lee Yong-sik, a key KCTU member, said ``since the beginning of this month, the KCTU and the transition team have negotiated a variety of issues to be handled at the meeting. The process for continued without preconditions but broke down with only two days to go before the meeting.''
Joo Ho-young, the spokesman for the team said, ``The two parties failed to reach a consensus regarding Lee's summons in previous meetings''
``The President-elect stressed respect for the law in his New Year's statement. We delayed the meeting to put that rule into practice,'' he added.