Dear Sister and Brothers,
We send you warm greetings and solidarity from the Korean Government Employees’ Union (KGEU) and the Korean Federation of Public Services and Transportation Workers’ Unions (KPTU), two public sector unions representing more than 270,000 Korean workers.
We are writing to ask for your solidarity concerning an issue of dire importance to public sector workers in South Korea. Over the last several years, hundreds of KGEU and KPTU members have been unfairly dismissed from their jobs in retaliation for legitimate union activities. Over 300 of these workers have yet to be reinstated. Among them are KGEU President Kim Jungnam and General Secretary Gwak Gyu-woon, dismissed from their jobs as government employees shortly after Park Geung-hye, the candidate of the conservative New Frontier Party, was elected as South Korea’s next president last December. The list of dismissed workers also includes 96 members of the KPTU-affiliated Korean Railway Workers’ Union who participated in strikes against rail privatization and dozens of others who have fought to defend quality public services and public sector labor rights. The reinstatement of these and all unfairly dismissed workers is essential to healthy public sector labor relations and to ensuring the provision of quality public services in South Korea.
President-elect Park Geun-hye, the daughter of the 1960s and 70s military dictator Park Chung-hee, will take over the presidency on February 25. While Park has spoken extensively about creating wide social cohesion, her anti-labor record, her support for privatization and her promise to pursue ‘public sector rationalization’ – a euphemism for restructuring – foreshadow dark times for public sector workers. Unless a strong message is sent, it is unlikely that the new administration will pursue reinstatement. Rather, we are likely to experience even more dismissals.
We are therefore calling for solidarity from our brothers and sisters in the labor movement who support the fundamental rights of public sector workers and quality public services.
Please sign the petition below and send it by email or fax to limwolsan@gmail.com, +82 (0)2 497-0444 by February 6 (Wed).
We will collect all petitions and deliver them to Park Geun-hye’s transition committee before the New Years holiday begins on February 9.
Please click to learn about background of unfairly dismissed public sector workers and related demands conducted by Research Institute for Alternative Workers Movements: http://www.humanrights.asia/news/forwarded-news/pdf/AHRC-FST-013-2013.pdf/view
Petition to President-elect Park Geun-hye for the Immediately Reinstatement of Unfairly Dismissed Public Sector Workers
1. The Korean Government Employees’ Union (KGEU) and the Korean Federation of Public Services and Transportation Workers’ Unions (KPTU) are two public sector unions in South Korea, together representing more than 270 thousand workers.
2. Currently 137 members of the KGEU and 165 members of the KPTU dismissed in retaliation for legitimate union activities have yet to be reinstated. Thousands of other KGEU and KPTU members have been subjected to other forms of disciplinary measures in relation to their union activities.
3. The majority of dismissed KGEU members were fired for having participated in the struggle against the enactment of the ‘Public Officials’ Trade Union Act’, written to severely restrict the fundamental labor rights of government employees, or for having criticized misguided government policy. The majority of dismissed KPTU members, workers at public enterprises, were dismissed for opposing public sector privatization and other government policies that threaten quality public services, or because they sought to form unions in order to improve poor working conditions.
4. Despite the fact that a ‘Special Act on the Reinstatement of Government Employees Dismissed or Disciplined in Relation to Union Activities’ received support by a majority of the members of the 19th National Assembly, and was formally proposed in June 2012, the administration and related government offices have not made any effort to move it forward.
5. The unfair dismissal of public sector workers results from and furthers the deterioration of public sector labor relations. The economic, social and psychological difficulty suffered by those who have been without jobs for extended periods is not only a problem of labor rights but also a severe violation of basic human rights.
6. We call on President-elect Park Geun-hye to commit to the reinstatement of all unjustly dismissed public sector workers and to restoring the status of those who have been subjected to other forms of disciplinary measures. These acts are necessary for the normalization of public sector labor relations, the correction of human rights violations and the protection of quality public services.
2013. 1.
Union/Organization: Name:
(sign) ______________
Email:
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