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| Members of the Korea Teachers Education Workers' Union (KTU) hold a rally at its office in Cheongun-dong, Jongno District, Seoul, against the government's move to strip its legal status. / Yonhap |
By Kim Jae-won
The nation's biggest teachers' union protested Friday the government's move to strip its legal status and sent a letter to President Park Geun-hye urging her to stop cracking down on labor activities.
Leaders of the Korea Teachers and Education Workers' Union (KTU) hosted a press conference outside Cheong Wa Dae and urged the head of state to withdraw an administrative order to terminate the membership of 22 former teachers who were fired by the previous government or private school foundations.
It pledged to fight until its demand is met.
"President Park Geun-hye should come forward to withdraw the Ministry of Employment and Labor's unfair and unreasonable claim," said Lee Young-ju, the senior vice chairwoman of the KTU in the conference.
"If she does not, Cheong Wa Dae proves that it is a major force behind persecuting labor activists and undermining democracy," she said.
Lee also said that the union will ask for help from the international community, and in particular the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The labor ministry warned KTU last month that it could lose its legal status within a month if it refuses to kick out 22 members fired by previous governments or private school foundations.
The announcement came one month later that the ministry declined to acknowledge the nation's biggest public officials' union because of the same reason, showing the government's hard line stance against trade unions.
The ministry's announcement attracted fierce criticism from the KTU.
Ha Byung-soo, spokesman of the union, defined the government's order as an"unprecedented anti-human rights activity" which threatens to dismiss a legal union by denying a labor union's right to organize.
"KTU members have been unfairly fired just because they expressed their opinions on political matters, supporting political parties and fighting against corruption in private schools. Therefore, we cannot abide by the government's order," said Ha.
The KTU is the nation's biggest teachers' union with about 60,000 members. It was established in 1989 and gained legal recognition in 1999.
The teachers' union said that the government seeks to suppress the union because it has conducted a series of anti-government activities, such as calling for the reform of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and protesting against school textbooks containing right wing points of view.
The ministry's stern stance against labor unions was criticized by the International Labor Organizations (ILO), which last week wrote to labor minister Phang Ha-nam to reconsider the order given to the KTU.
The ILO also sent a letter in August to the ministry to reconsider rejecting a petition from the Korean Government Employees Union (KGEU) to acknowledge it as a legal entity. However, the minister said that the government will not accept the ILO's petition to approve the establishment of the KGEU in an interview with The Korea Times.
The ILO has long pressured the country to allow civil servants to establish their own union. The KGEU has 140,000 members, making it one of the biggest umbrella organizations in the country.
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