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Migrants’ Trade Union in South Korea Grows, Gains International Support
Migrant workers face tremendous pressure and exploitation in dynamic and wealthy South Korea, reports the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center’s Timothy Ryan.
In one of the richest and the most Internet-wired countries in the world, you might assume that workers’ and migrants’ rights are respected. You’d be wrong.
Between 200,000 and 700,000 migrants, a large number of them undocumented, work in South Korea. They represent several Asian countries, including Vietnam—home to the largest number of migrants to South Korea—as well as the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Nepal. They work in manufacturing, construction, fisheries and the service industry (e.g. hotel and domestic workers).
One important issue is that ethnic Korean-Chinese, who come to South Korea through a separate visa process, are given relatively preferential treatment because of their ethnic background. This lays the groundwork for inherent discrimination against workers from all the other countries, including in terms of wages. Many employers discriminate against migrants by refusing to pay them the minimum wage or forcing them to work up to 20 hours a day to get overtime pay.
Another issue is that South Korea is rather unique because companies do not use private recruiters to attract migrant workers. Instead, the government brings in migrant workers through memoranda of understanding with sending countries.
But South Korean unions, in concert and support with their brothers and sisters in the Nepali labor movement, are fighting back and making progress.
In the early 1990s, migrants started to organize. Manju Thapa, who arrived in South Korea from Nepal in 1993 at age 16, lost three fingers in an industrial accident. Now a women’s activist and the anchor of Migrant TV in Seoul, her efforts to organize workers are helping migrants attain their rights and a more equal playing field. Says Thapa:
I helped form the first migrant worker organizations in 1994-95 and was the first to actually win a compensation suit against the South Korean government.
The General Federation of Nepali Trade Unions (GEFONT), a labor federation in Nepal, was an early supporter of the new migrant movement in South Korea and, by 2001, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) began to support the migrant cause. In April 2005 the Migrants Trade Union (MTU) was formed, and the KCTU affiliated the union to its Seoul regional branch.
The MTU supports workers’ legal claims and offers training to migrants who go back to their home countries. The MTU also tries to connect returning migrants with organizations that help provide pre-departure training for workers about to leave their home country.
For every gain, however, problems remain. The South Korean government has consistently deported MTU leaders—and is attempting to oust Michel Catuira, the organization’s current president. The International Labor Organization (ILO) has requested the South Korean judiciary to grant the renewal of Catuira’s residence permit, opposing the government’s attempts to deport him. Meanwhile, registration of the MTU has been delayed through a variety of legal maneuvers.
In November, the Committee on Freedom of Association at the ILO Governing Body urged the South Korean government to:
refrain from any measures which might involve a risk of serious interference with trade union activities and might lead to the arrest and deportation of trade union leaders for reasons related to their election to trade union office.
The committee also noted that the case regarding MTU’s registration has been pending with the Supreme Court for more than four years. The committee expressed its firm expectation that:
the government will proceed with the registration of the MTU without delay and supply full particulars in relation to this matter, as well as in reply to its previous recommendations.
International support may bring a turning point for migrant workers in South Korea. In the interim, the dedicated leaders of the MTU will continue to speak up for oppressed workers and fight for their union’s existence.
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3 Comments
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This article is properly worded by Timothy Ryan. A migrant is neither a natizen nor a citizen, they are travellers from other societies seeking whatever they want to achieve.
And, my having said that, it is true that in many cases migrants are horribly discriminated against, abused, even robbed and raped by their employers.
I personally have no knowledge about the plight of undocumented workers as illegal aliens in Korea, but world-wide, we have a problem in that being illegally in any country is inhumanely both un-legal and is encouraged at the same time!
The world needs to straighten this out so we have international consistency in natizenship laws, immigration (which is legal entry) laws, and in migratory laws, as well as with what to do with illegal trespass into any country from any country, and about giving birth during illegal trespass, which I strongly advocate should NOT confer automatic natizenship if the mother giving birth is in a country illegally. There should be a default registry of the new-born to the country of his or her mother’s origination if the mother is in a country illegally, and that should be internationally recognized that way.
Mr Libris Fidelis you are so correct.
I know for a fact the many of South Koreas factories are loaded with foreign nationals who are recruited as the article says. They are low paid and often prisoners of the situations. They don’t make enough money to get back home and if they object to conditions they are thrown out with on money or place to go. This is happening in the Mariana Islands too which are a U.S. Territory. The workers have no rights and their plight needs to be part of any trade agreements.
This is modern day slavery; it is immoral and disgusting, This to is rampant capitalism with no controls.