'Support for Lee Jae-myung' from Korean Confederation of Trade Unions... Busan Branch 1,490 Members Declare Support for Yoon Seok-youl

Opposition Lawmakers from Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Also Cite "Lack of Representation and Legitimacy"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] As the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) expressed support for Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, voices of opposition have emerged from regional headquarters and opposition parties.

Representatives of sectoral organizations under the FKTU Busan Headquarters and 1,490 workers held a press conference on the 9th at the People Power Party Busan Metropolitan City Office, stating, "We cannot help but deplore the current administration, where fairness, justice, and common sense cannot be found anywhere, and only abuse of power, falsehoods, excuses, and double standards are rampant." They added, "We support candidate Yoon for a Republic of Korea where fairness, justice, and common sense prevail."

The day before, the FKTU held an extraordinary delegates' meeting and announced that more than half of the 847 delegates expressed support for candidate Lee.

In response, opposition parties also voiced criticism. People Power Party lawmakers Im E-ja, Park Dae-su, and Kim Hyung-dong, all former FKTU members, held a press conference that day, expressing regret over the "regressive thinking and ideologically biased endorsement by the current FKTU executive, who declared support for Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, on the 8th." They pointed out that "the FKTU's political policy, which should have gone through transparent and democratic procedures, was nothing more than a despicable trick and a mere formality to support a specific candidate."

They criticized the lack of representativeness and legitimacy. They said, "The political will of 741 delegates is insufficient to represent the 1.5 million FKTU union members," and added, "Nevertheless, the FKTU self-assessed that their decision was not different from the choice of all 25 million workers."

They also stated, "Historically, the FKTU's presidential election political policies were decided through democratic procedures involving total votes from all union members, but the current executive committed an atrocity by deciding the supported candidate through biased and distorted screening and a mobile vote by delegates, which makes it difficult to guarantee fairness, solely to support a specific candidate."

Furthermore, they pointed out the possibility of violating election laws. According to Article 96 of the Public Official Election Act, "Acts of reporting or commenting false facts or distorting facts regarding elections with the purpose of making a specific candidate elected or not elected" are prohibited. Article 108, Paragraph 3 prohibits "acts of forming or operating evaluation panels that are favorable or unfavorable to specific candidates." Citing these provisions, they stated, "The FKTU distorted candidate Yoon's labor policies during the candidate selection process and conducted presidential candidate evaluations led by pro-Democratic Party figures, making it unavoidable to be accused of violating current election laws."

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