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| Leaders of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions chant a slogan during a meeting at their office in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, Wednesday. They decided to boycott a trilateral negotiating council among the labor, management and the government. Yonhap |
By Ko Dong-hwan
One of the country's two biggest umbrella unions has decided to boycott a negotiating body composed of labor, management and government representatives, virtually shutting off its official communication channel with the two sides.
The move by the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU), the less militant of the country's two major umbrella groups, to protest a police crackdown on a union member, is unprecedented for the Economic, Social and Labor Council (ESLC), which was formed in November 2018.
The FKTU has been the only labor group participating in the council and the decision is expected to escalate tensions between unionized workers and the government, which were exacerbated by the Yoon Suk Yeol government's hardline stance on striking union workers. The other umbrella union, the more militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), had already exited the ESLC's predecessor in 1999 and has not returned to the trilateral negotiating body.
The FKTU made the decision at a meeting of some 50 leaders at its office in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, Wednesday.
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| Kim Dong-myeong, president of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, attends a union leaders' meeting in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, Wednesday. Yonhap |
The union plans to announce Wednesday's decision officially in front of the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, during a press conference, Thursday.
The FKTU's boycott this time came after the police apprehended Kim Joon-young, general secretary of the Federation of Korean Metal Workers' Trade Unions, a sub-union of the FKTU, in Gwangyang on May 31 for obstruction of justice. Kim was in the middle of a sit-in strike atop a 7-meter-high steel structure in front of steelmaker POSCO's mill in the city.
During what the union claimed was a "violent suppression," the police beat Kim with batons to take him under custody, while he resisted fiercely. Kim sustained an injury on his head, while police also suffered wounds.
Yoon's labor reform drive gained momentum last year after the public supported his no-compromise stance against nationwide strikes by some unions. At the time, the unions also kept a lower profile. But the recent clash has triggered them to amplify their voice against Yoon's pro-business policies.
The FKTU previously quit the ESLC's predecessor, the Korea Tripartite Commission, in 2016 during the conservative Park Geun-hye administration, to protest the government's move to allow companies fire workers showing poor performance and change employment regulations more easily.
The union returned to the negotiating table during the liberal Moon Jae-in administration the following year and joined the ESLC when it was launched in 2018.
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