Chairman Lee Mok-hee Criticizes Trade Unions

Chairman Lee Mok-hee of the Fifth Policy Coordination Committee, who is in charge of the Uri Party’s labor policies, criticized the hard-liners of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), comparing them to the Grand National Party (GNP). This is expected to create a stir in the labor sector as Lee is considered to be a reformist hawk within the party, being a former labor movement activist himself.

Lee held a press conference after a party-government consultation on industrial relations at the National Assembly and strongly voiced his concerns, saying, “KCTU hard-liners did not present themselves at the voting on the KCTU’s participation at the tripartite commission held at the KCTU Majority Chairs’ Assembly on January 21. Their action resembled that of the GNP, whose members would exit after the number of people present at the conference hall was counted.” Also, he criticized that “it is clearly a violation of corporate ownership for a trade union to have control over a certain portion of employment,” in regards to the employment scandal involving the labor union at Kia Motors’ Gwangju plant. The Uri Party announced a plan to revise once again the revision proposal to put all sectors under the protection act for dispatched workers, which is effective in only on 26 sectors, and to expand its scope gradually.

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com