By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter


The country’s largest government workers’ union plans to join one of the two biggest umbrella labor groups to more effectively stage its struggle against the government.

The Korean Government Employees’ Union (KGEU) with over 140,000 members is expected to join the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), the country’s second largest labor group, next month to demand full guarantee of their rights as unionists.

The union has said that in protest against the Local Government Workers Act, which goes into effective at the end of this month, it would remain an outlawed organization without seeking approval for a legitimate labor union.

Another government workers’ union, the Confederation of Government Employees’ Unions (CGEU) with a 70,000 membership, has also indicated that it would refuse to abide by the law, which prohibits public workers from taking collective action.

Unions have argued that they cannot fight for civil servants’ welfare without rights to strike.

``We will not follow the law. Instead, we will maintain our current status and continue our struggle against the government until it grants all labor rights guaranteed under the Constitutions to us,’’ KGEU spokesperson Jeong Yong-hae said.

``The law is designed not to guarantee our full labor rights but to restrict them. To intensify our struggle against the government, we will join the KCTU as soon as possible,’’ he said.

The unions are also complaining that the law is too restrictive on who can join the union, preventing a large number of mid- and low-ranking civil servants from joining the union.

``Under the law, even low-ranking government workers at the departments dealing with matters of budgets, human resources, general affairs and audit and inspections are not allowed to become union members. It is absurd,’’ Jeong said.

He said that some 130,000 government workers out of the total 350,000 eligible for union membership would be barred from joining the union due to the law’s restrictive provisions.

The KGEU estimates 60,000 out of its 140,000 union members would also be forced to withdraw their union membership if the union decides to obtain legitimate status under the law.

However, government officials say that it will not recognize public workers’ unions unless they abide by the law.

Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan said on Friday that it will take stern measures against the KGEU and the CGEU if they decide to remain outlawed, adding that the government would not acknowledge their rights to union organization and collective bargaining.

In October, the Constitutional Court ruled the law banning civil servants from striking constitutional.

In a ruling on the complaint filed by the KGEU, the court said that the Constitution gives the government the discretion to limit the rights of public workers to organize collective action.

The KGEU filed a complaint with the country’s highest court in July 2003 after the lower courts found several of its high-ranking officials guilty of organizing illegal strikes in November 2002

Meanwhile, the KCTU will likely become the country’s largest labor umbrella group, surpassing the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU), as the 140,000-member KGEU is set to join the KCTU.

As of December, the KCTU boasts about 668,136 members from 744 unions, while the FKTU has some 780,183 members under its wing, according to the Ministry of Labor.

But the second largest CGEU has decided to establish a new umbrella labor group with the Korean Union of Teaching and Education Workers and other public workers’ unions.

``We expect the KGEU to join us as all candidates vying for a leadership have indicated that the union would work with us,’’ KCTU vice spokesperson Woo Moon-sook said.

Woo added that the union will provide much-needed momentum to the KCTU’s efforts to boost its falling union membership and transform itself into an innovative and reform-oriented organization.

According to the labor ministry, the country’s unionization rate fell to an all-time low of 10.6 percent in 2004, down from 11 percent a year earlier.

The number of unionized workers also dropped by 0.8 percent to 1.54 million in 2004 from 2003, with the number of unions also decreasing by 3.8 percent to 6,017.

The number of unionists affiliated with the KCTU dropped by 5,744 to 668,136 over the same period.

leehs@koreatimes.co.kr