Korea: Hands off our right to strike!
20 February 2015
PSI affiliates KGEU, KPTU and FKPIU, together with representatives from ITF, BWI and Industriall participated in the press conference held in Seoul on 16 February. In speeches during the press conference, the presidents of the two national centres stressed the validity of the right to strike in international law and condemned the violations on the right to strike in Korea. They called on the Korean government to make the necessary changes at domestic level by amending Constitutional laws and practices that violate basic labour rights, and to help resolve the conflict around the right to strike at the ILO.
The KCTU president Sang Gyun Han criticised the attempt by the employers groups in the ILO to deny the standing of the right to strike in international law, stressing that the problem should be brought before the international court of justice for recommendation.
KPTU President Sangsu Jo, KGEU Vice President HO-Il Jeon and FKPIU General Secretary Gyeongho Lee all spoke condemning violations on the right to strike and other fundamental labour rights in the public sector. This included denying union recognition to the KGEU, legal restrictions on public servants’ rights to freedom of association and to strike, an overly wide definition of essential services, claims for damages, criminal charges and dismissals and the so-called 'normalisation of public institutions policy'.
KCTU and its affiliates have also been doing on-line picketing to spread the word about the global day of action and protests against the violations on the right to strike in Korea and around the world.
Facebook album and attached pictures.