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. Read the rest of this entry »
91 Unionists Killed in 2008, 49 in Colombia Alone
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A total of 91 union members were killed worldwide last year, the same number as in 2007. But more than half (49) were killed in Colombia alone, 10 more than last year, making it once again the most dangerous country for trade unionists, according to the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC‘s) “Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights.”
The Colombian government has not vigorously investigated or prosecuted the killing of trade union members. At the current pace of investigations and trials, it would take 37 years to prosecute the backlog of cases. And the caseload is growing—the rate of killings, which had fallen for a few years, jumped sharply last year by 25 percent, says José Luciano Sanin, director of Escuela Nacional Sindical (National Union School), a leading Colombian think tank.
