A press conference by women’s society to support the struggles of the two umbrella trade unions: oppose a ban on paying full-time unionists and unified negotiation window of multiple unions!

 

 

Date and venue: at 10:30am on November 12, 2009, in front of the tent strike placed in front of the National Assembly.

The government and the ruling party announced the immediate enforcement of the Trade Union Act and the Labor Relation Mediation Act which prohibit full time unionists from being paid and the unified negotiation window in case of the introduction of multiple workshop-based trade union system.

 

In last April, the ILO recommended to solve the issues related to wages of fulltime unionists through the autonomous and voluntary agreement between workers and users. Nevertheless, the government spread the distorted truth that ‘there is no country where companies pay full time unionists’ in order to ‘terminate the Korean labor movement.’

 

Presently, small-size company-based trade unions with their union membership of less than 300 accounted for over 87% out of the total number of 4,900 trade unions in Korea. However, in fact there would be no full-time activists in trade unions with their union membership of less than 300 or union membership fees have to be raised to pay a fulltime union activist, if the present acts are put into effect. Since the wage levels of workers working in a small-size company with less than 300 workers are not high enough to support the increases in their union membership fees. It means there will be no full-time activists in most trade unions at last. Further, it will be clear that union negotiation and activities will be largely withered due to no fulltime activists. Under the current situation in which most women workers work in the companies employing less than 300 workers, the government policy will have negative influence on women workers’ circle.

 

The policy to unify the negotiation window in the case of the introduction of multiple trade union systems means that the right to negotiate with the company will be given to only one trade union if two or three trade unions exist in a company. If so, the isolated trade unions will lose their bases, and serious conflicts amongst workers will be caused to obtain the right to negotiate collectively. In conclusion, the unification of negotiation windows will eventually cause conflicts amongst workers, and further, it will be a very poisonous article because it violates the freedom of association as well as infringes the basic labor rights.

Accordingly, the government should allow the labor and the management to handle the wage issue of fulltime unionists on the basis of their self-regulation, and stop the forcible unification of negotiation windows of multiple trade unions.