"Weak Labor Policies of the United Future Party"... Bitter Criticism from the National Future Forum

"Not Many Aristocratic Unions... Voters' Interest in Workplace Harassment and More"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] In the joint research group of United Future Party and the People’s Party lawmakers, the ‘People’s Future Forum,’ harsh criticism was raised regarding the United Future Party’s weak labor policy capabilities.

Kim Hyung-dong, a United Future Party lawmaker, spoke as a presenter at a policy seminar titled “Workers Who Support Us, and Workers We Support” held on the 19th at the National Assembly Members’ Office Building, stating, “Among the many policy capabilities the United Future Party has, the labor item seems relatively weak. I think this was chosen as the first agenda to reflect on that,” and added, “From my experience, a considerable number of workers are our support base. If we do a little better, we can broaden our support base.”

Kim emphasized, “Looking at the labor class, from those who do not receive the minimum wage to the diversification of the labor market, issues such as workplace harassment and the gap between a 100 million won salaried worker and a 1 million won salaried worker are of great interest to many voters.”

Kim said, “During the presidential election, labor organizations asked each candidate about topics they were interested in, but the important thing was that the United Future Party candidate Hong Jun-pyo’s side responded late and without sincerity. It was like ‘do it if you want to.’ Even what we barely received was that it was difficult to do in the current state and that they didn’t know well,” and criticized, “The result is the reality we are seeing. It should not be that the labor union answers ‘don’t know’ or ‘not interested’ when asked about labor policies.”

Kim stated, “Some of our party leaders say that Korea is suffering because of the aristocratic unions, which is neither entirely wrong nor entirely right. There aren’t that many aristocratic unions,” and added, “The problem is that most workers are concentrated on this side. I want to ask if our party really has labor policies for these people.”

Kim said, “The anti-labor policies of the Park Geun-hye administration, such as raiding the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), caused the KCTU to develop complete antagonism,” and “Many people joined the movement to overthrow the government because the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) planned to proceed with easy dismissals mainly in public enterprises.”

Regarding the ‘Serious Accident Punishment Act’ promoted by the Justice Party, Kim said, “Personally, I think our party’s position should be to strengthen punishments in some way compared to now,” but also noted, “The preventive aspect is important, but approaching this issue solely on the premise of criminal punishment has its limits. I think it would be better if the design removes the perception that serious accident punishment is unconditionally criminal punishment.”

On the other hand, Park Hyung-soo, a United Future Party lawmaker, said, “It is very unfortunate when workers die due to poor management while working, and strict responsibility should be imposed,” but pointed out, “When going abroad, managers do not have such burdens, but if there is direct responsibility in our country, it could become a major factor deterring investment and business.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.