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Next up on the Bush ‘Free Trade’ Agenda: Korea-U.S. |
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A coalition of U.S. and South Korean trade union members is forming to ensure that workers’ rights is on the agenda when negotiators meet next month to kick off talks on a trade agreement between the two countries.
Talks begin June 5 in Washington, D.C., on the Korea-U.S. Trade Agreement (KORUS), the next in a round of bilateral trade talks by the Bush administration. Like other trade agreements pushed by the Bush White House, KORUS is expected to be based on the failed model of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which has cost more than 1 million U.S. jobs and caused real wages in Mexico to fall by 25 percent over the past 11 years, according to the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute.
A free trade agreement patterned on the NAFTA model will worsen workplace conditions for employees in Korea, especially “irregular” workers—those who are self employed or who work part-time, says Heo Young-koo, vice president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and Lee Changgeun, KCTU’s director of international affairs. Both men met with AFL-CIO staff May 18 to discuss ways the two federations could cooperate on common issues.
The AFL-CIO and affiliated unions are pushing for all trade agreements to include enforceable workers’ rights clauses and environmental protections. Other agreements negotiated by the Bush administration such as the Central American Free Trade Agreement and the deals with Oman, Peru and Colombia do not adequately protect workers’ rights such as the freedom to form unions.
Irregular workers make up about 56 percent of Korea’s workforce, Young-koo says, and they are paid about half of the wage rate that regular full-time workers receive. Women workers, especially, are discriminated against when it comes to wages and working conditions, he says.
Workers’ rights are often ignored in Korea, Changgeun says, with workers often being required to work long hours and in unsafe conditions. Last year, 3,000 workers died in occupational accidents. The total workforce in Korea is 15 million.
The KCTU has launched a campaign to defeat proposed legislation that would allow employers to hire irregular workers without any restrictions on hours, working conditions or job security.
“You already have experience from NAFTA,” Young-koo told his hosts. “We can guess what the results of a U.S.-Korean free trade agreement would be.”
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