Government – Public Servant Union, Urgent Conflict Again

It is expected that the National Public Servant Union will resist against a new legislation after hearing the news that the government will make a decision on a legislative bill (a legislative bill of the national public servant union) regarding the establishment of a public servant union and its operation, which prohibits a recent strike and wage negotiations and submit it to the National Congress this month.

The National Public Servant Union started a national parade and a campaign to obtain one million signatures in order to hold back the national public servant union law on a large scale of struggle on October 6. Accordingly, it is expected that in a year there will be a head-on collision between the government and union which confronted each other due to a strike and forcible suppression with the legislative bill of the national public servant union last November.

An Issue: The legislative bill of the national public servant union that the government will present at the Vice-Minister meeting next week acknowledged the use of appellation ‘labor union’ and accepted union’s demand such as no limitation of joining in the upper association.

However, a collective action right (the right of collective action and political activity such as a strike) the union strongly requested is totally prohibited and the effect of wage negotiation, the core of the right of collective bargaining is also not admitted.

“The legislative bill stipulated that a labor agreement between labor and management is ineffective because pay for public servants is related to national budget and should be referred to discussion at the national congress,” revealed Park Hwa-jin, a manager of labor union at the Ministry of Labor.

However, the National Public Servant Union insisted, “This is an obsolete legislative bill, which cannot guarantee the basic right of labors and the government should immediately stop propelling the legislation and make a new legislative bill through the direct negotiation with labor union.”

Repelling Union: The National Public Servant Union (70,000 members of the association) which struggled for the establishment of labor union started a national relay parade (from October 6 to 18) in order to hold back the public servant union law in Yangsan, south Kyeongsang province and Wando, South Jolla province respectively on October 6. The National Public Servant Union will hold a mass meeting for nation wide public servant labor determination at the final destination of the parade in Seoul on October 18. And about 2000 people will participate.

South Kyeongnam headquarter of the National Public Servant Union obtained signatures against legislation on the street after having a start event for the parade in Changwon and making determination of ‘obstruction of labor bill.’ Most of Kyeongnam branches in Tongyoung, Masan, and Miryang finished the start event and signatures on October 6-8.

South Jolla headquarter did street propaganda activities by marching on the street after having an expedition event with a participation of 15 branches on October 6-7. “About 700 people of the association only in south Jolla province took part in this propaganda event, and we will do more to be organized and broader struggle than last year,” said Kim Il, a head official.

The National Public Servant Union created a stir with unprecedented ‘collective vacation struggle’ in order to stop the legislative bill of public servant labor union from passing the national congress last November. The National Public Servant Union went on a strike by each self-governing community and held a public servant union rally in Seoul for two days. The police considered it as an illegal strike and forcibly suppressed it by taking 591 people of labor union to the police station and arresting 14 people.

The problem is that the National Public Servant Union warned about an extremely hard struggle. “Signatories opposing a legislative bill came to about 30,000, and we will fight with every means right after laying before the congress,” revealed Kim Jeong-su, a chief of policy project.

Meanwhile, the government has shown its position that it will not revise the bill. Furthermore, it is expected that conflict between labor and government will be inevitable since there is a high possibility that the opposition Grand National Party will oppose the presentation of the bill itself which admits the public servant union like last year.

oscar@donga.com