Immediately After Election Victory, New Leadership of KCTU Emphasizes Struggle, Plans General Strike in November Next Year

Candidate Yang Kyung-soo Wins with 55.7%
First Non-Regular Worker Chairman
Emphasizes Struggle Over Tripartite Dialogue
Labor-Government Relations Inevitable to Sour

Yang Kyung-soo, the elected chairman of the 10th term of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (center), is taking a commemorative photo with Kim Jae-ha, the emergency committee chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (right), after receiving the certificate of election at the chairman's office of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions on the 24th. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] "Next November, we will organize the 'Jeon Tae-il General Strike,' which will be recorded as a chapter in history."

With the election of the first non-regular worker with a strong stance as the next chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), dark clouds are gathering over labor-management and tripartite relations.

According to the vote count results released by the KCTU on the 24th, candidate group number 3, led by Yang Kyung-soo, head of the KCTU Gyeonggi Regional Headquarters (chairman, senior vice chairman, secretary general, etc.), was elected with 287,413 votes (55.7%) out of a total of 531,158 votes. Yoon Taek-geun and Jeon Jong-deok were elected as senior vice chairman and secretary general, respectively. They will lead the KCTU for three years starting January next year. In his victory speech, Yang declared, "For the first time in history, the number one labor union will organize a prepared general strike," signaling a general strike and a tough struggle against the government. He also warned, "The regime and capital will face a 'strange era.' All past practices, systems, and memories should be forgotten."

During the election campaign debates, Yang showed a stance prioritizing struggle compared to candidate Kim Sang-gu, who promised social dialogue and negotiations and also predicted a general strike in November next year. Yang was formerly the head of the non-regular workers’ branch of the Metal Workers' Union Kia Motors Hwaseong branch and is the first non-regular worker among past KCTU chairpersons. In 2015, he led a 363-day high-altitude protest demanding the conversion of illegal dispatch workers to regular status, achieving the regularization of about 1,000 workers. The new KCTU leadership is expected to strongly push issues related to non-regular workers, including the conversion of non-regular workers in the public sector to regular positions.

Yang’s election pledges include applying the Labor Standards Act to workplaces with fewer than five employees, recognizing special employment, indirect employment, and freelancers as workers under the Labor Union Act, and achieving the 'Jeon Tae-il 3 Laws,' including the Serious Accident Corporate Punishment Act. He declared that on November 3 next year, there will be a one-million-strong general strike. Yang pledged to finalize this schedule at the first regular delegates' meeting of his term and prepare for the strike over the course of a year.

With the formation of a new hardline leadership, labor-government relations are inevitably expected to become strained. The KCTU refused to participate in tripartite talks for overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic in July. Former KCTU chairman Kim Myung-hwan, who led the tripartite agreement, resigned taking responsibility for this.

Under the emergency committee system, the KCTU is escalating its struggle against the government in response to the government and ruling party pushing through amendments to the Labor Union Act that partially reflect management’s demands, such as extending the validity period of collective agreements. In particular, the enactment of the Serious Accident Corporate Punishment Act, aimed at punishing companies responsible for worker deaths and other serious accidents, is a key pledge of Yang. If legislation fails in the National Assembly, it could become a focal point of labor-government conflict.

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