Sogongyeon-Baedonguk Chairman Conflict Peaks... Emergency Committee Moves Toward 'Impeachment'

Bae Dong-wook, Chairman of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, is drinking water briefly during a press conference held on July 14 at the Korea Federation of SMEs in Yeouido, Seoul, where he was explaining about the so-called 'Dance Workshop' held last month. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] The conflict between the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (hereinafter referred to as KFME) and its chairman Bae Dongwook has escalated to a critical point. The labor union staff of the secretariat have collectively opposed Chairman Bae’s organizational restructuring plan and have threatened a general strike, while the Emergency Committee composed of regular member organization heads of KFME has announced an extraordinary general meeting on the 15th to discuss the ‘impeachment’ of Chairman Bae.

According to KFME on the 11th, out of 28 secretariat staff members, 18 excluding managerial and probationary employees signed and submitted a ‘Non-acceptance Confirmation of Organizational Restructuring’ to the management, stating that the restructuring plan implemented on the 7th was a ‘unilateral plan with no reflection of labor-management consultations.’

In this regard, Jang Gisu, chairman of the KFME labor union, stated, “The staff attempted to negotiate the restructuring plan for the normal operation of the secretariat, but Chairman Bae ignored the employees’ opinions and pushed the restructuring unilaterally without going through the approval process. He demoted an employee who was performing duties as a director to a team member due to union activities, transferred the union chairman to a managerial position, and dismantled the public relations team, completely disregarding the existing duties of the employees. This is a personnel move aimed at union dissolution and organizational control.”

He continued, “The submission of this confirmation letter verifies that the majority of employees oppose the current restructuring plan. The staff will continue to work under the previous organizational structure before the 7th. Nevertheless, if Chairman Bae’s side unilaterally enforces the restructuring and disadvantages those who submitted the confirmation letter, we will risk everything and engage in resistance, including a general strike,” warning of future collective actions.

The KFME Emergency Committee plans to hold an extraordinary general meeting on the morning of the 15th at S Convention in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, to impeach Chairman Bae.

For the impeachment of Chairman Bae to be approved, ‘a majority of regular members must be present and a majority of those present must vote in favor.’ If the impeachment is approved, Chairman Bae’s duties will be immediately suspended.

A KFME official said, “We need to tally unpaid membership fees and confirm the number of voting members, but it is expected that about 56 to 60 organization heads will have voting rights. The Emergency Committee expects that the majority of attendees at the extraordinary general meeting will support Chairman Bae’s impeachment.”

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