Candidate Yang Kyung-soo elected as next leader of Minjunochong... first reappointment

Yang Kyung-soo, the current chairman, was elected as the next chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). This is the first time that a chairman has been re-elected in the KCTU.

Yang Kyung-soo, Chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. [Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the KCTU on the 28th, in the election for the 11th leadership held from the 21st to the 27th, candidate Yang received 363,246 votes (56.61%), defeating candidate Park Hee-eun, who received 201,218 votes (31.36%), and was elected chairman.

The voting was conducted through on-site, mail, and electronic ballots. The overall voter turnout was 63.97%. Lee Tae-hwan, head of the Public Transport and Port Transport Headquarters of the Public Transport Union, and Ko Mi-kyung, former planning director of the KCTU, who ran as Yang’s running mates, will serve as senior vice chairman and secretary general, respectively. They will lead the KCTU for three years starting from January next year.

Yang, the first non-regular worker to become chairman of the KCTU, previously served as the head of the in-house subcontractor branch of the Hwaseong branch of the Kia Motors division of the Metal Workers’ Union. In his victory speech, Yang said, "I will definitely carry out the slogan 'Overwhelm KCTU' that I shouted during the election campaign," and added, "I will realize the urgent demands of union members to dramatically increase the influence of the KCTU." He also stated, "Let us end the Yoon Seok-yeol administration and build a new hope for workers. The resignation of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration is the demand of all the people living in the present."

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