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Korea, Republic Of

Water for All

Date: 
13 April, 2015 to 14 April, 2015

PSI affiliate, the Korean Government Employees Union (KGEU) and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) are organising an international forum to seek alternatives to privatisation policies and to strengthen public water services.

Korea: Hands off our right to strike!

20 February 2015
Korea - Hands off our right to strike

Before the start of the Lunar New Year, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) held a day of action in defence of the right to strike. The two national centres jointly held a press conference in Seoul, calling for recognition of the right to strike in Korea and around the world.

Korean school teachers injured during police raid

19 February 2015
Police removing striking worker from sit-in

Striking elementary school teachers have been injured during a violent police raid in South Korea on 17 February, just a day before the Lunar New Year holiday.

Deregulation of transport safety can be lethal, say Korean unions

19 January 2015

Creating safe workplaces and a safe society. Under this slogan the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and the Committees for the Sewol ferry tragedy organized an international symposium on 1-3 December 2014 in Seoul.

South Korean workers fight for the right to retire in dignity

01 November 2014

Over 120,000 South Korean workers took to the streets of Seoul, on Saturday, in a mass rally against the government's plan to reform pension schemes.

Asia Pacific Forum on trade union rights: It is time for ACTION NOW!

Date: 
30 October, 2014 to 31 October, 2014

The Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Trade Union rights will come up with an Action Plan for the region for 2015. PSI affiliate leaders will share experience on campaigns for freedom of association, collective bargaining and the right to strike. Special attention will be devoted to the impact of privatisation and precarious forms of employment in the public sector, fire-fighters’ right to organise and campaigning for the ratification and implementation of international labour standards.

Ebola Response

24 October 2014

Deaths to health workers accounted for six percent of all deaths confirmed as due to EVD, even to the end of the outbreaks. Over 500 health workers, including members of PSI affiliated unions, were killed in the line of duty. PSI is actively lobbying national governments, the ILO and WHO and working with health and allied care workers in our unions to rebuild health systems that can resist future outbreaks in the context of universal access to essential healthcare, which is the core of the post-2015 agenda for health.

Korea: Health unions strike and rally against health privatisation

27 June 2014
PSI Women's Committee hold banners in solidarity with Korean health workers

Korea health unions KHMU and KPTU-HealthSol held a strike from 24-30 June, and protest rallies on 27 and 28 June after the Korean government's announcement to allow for deregulation and privatisation of the health services in the country.

PSI Deputy General Secretary at Sewol memorial rally in Korea

10 June 2014
Deputy General Secretary David Boys delivering his speech at Seoul

PSI Deputy General Secretary David Boys addressed a candlelight vigil on 7 June in Seoul in front of 10,000 people who gathered to honour of the victims of the Sewol ferry tragedy which killed 300 high school students.

Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)

09 April 2014

International trade agreements such as the TPP are currently being fast-tracked and negotiated in secrecy. These agreements undermine local and national government decision-making power and increase corporate access to public services resulting in the privatization of critical public services. PSI is working with global union federations, affiliated unions, and civil society allies who oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) being negotiated in the Asia Pacific Region.