Report: Criminalising peaceful assembly: South Korea sentences trade union leader

Abstract

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 28 Volume 23 Issue 2 2016 from 8 to 18 months under the same charges. The judicial harassment of trade unionists since the November 2015 rally is the latest step in a long campaign against unions. As we reported last year in IUR 221, the repression of trade union rights in South Korea has reached new heights in recent years. The current government has taken this hostility to a new level, attempting to crack down on trade union activity by a combination of branding strikes illegal, imprisoning trade union leaders, and even suing unions for vast amounts of money. In response to strike action by the Korean Railway Workers’ Union (KRWU) to oppose rail privatisation, around 5000 riot police raided KCTU offices in December 2013, searching for KRWU leaders. Hundreds of KCTU staff were arrested. Later in 2014, some 138 KRWU leaders were charged, and huge compensation claims against the union were made (amounting to over EUR 47 million for seven strikes). The scale of these attacks on unions is driven in no small part by the dominance of the country’s ‘Chaebol’ or conglomerates, whose privileged status is a legacy of South Korea’s economic growth and development strategies. On 12 July 2016, unions joined with civil society groups and opposition parties to demand reforms to address the family-owned conglomerates’ abuse of power. Choi Jong-jin, acting leader of the KCTU, noted that, ‘since the 1997 financial crises, wealth inequality has widened in tandem with the Korean economy’s deepening reliance on chaebol’. Calling for reforms, Choi said that the Chaebol system ‘worsens inequality and destroys labour unions’1 . The General Secretary of the ITUC, Sharan Burrow, responded to the harsh sentencing of the KCTU President, stating: ‘This criminalisation of legitimate protest is totally unacceptable, and reinforces the power of Korea’s Chaebol industrial conglomerates which already dominate the economy. President Park Geun-hye’s governing party already lost its parliamentary majority in the elections in April, but she seems determined to continue to allow business to call the shots regardless of the harm caused to working people. The sentencing of Han Sang-gyun shows that the courts are subjugated to the political agenda of a government that has no majority, rather than standing up for the rule of law. The international trade union movement will continue to press for his release and the withdrawal of all the charges against those facing court proceedings for simply standing up for workers’ rights and other fundamental freedoms’2 . Notes 1 Korea Herald, ‘Opposition parties, civic groups allign to reform chaebol’, 12 July 2016. Available here: http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20160712000799 2 ITUC, ‘Korea: Imprisonment of KCTU President a Travesty of Justice’, 4 July 2016. Available here: http://www.ituc-csi.org/ korea-imprisonment-of-kctu The sentencing of Han Sang-gyun shows that the courts are subjugated to the political agenda of a government that has no majority, rather than standing up for the rule of law O n 4 July 2016, Han Sang-gyun, the President of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), was sentenced to five years in prison by the Seoul Central District Court, for the crime of ‘obstruction’. This constitutes the harshest sentence for a rally organiser in South Korea’s post-democratisation history. The prosecution against Han stemmed from a series of legitimate protest assemblies in 2015, including a rally against proposed labour law reforms held on 14 November 2015 in Seoul in which 100,000 demonstrators participated. The protesters were met with 20,000 police officers from 248 squadrons, armed with 19 water cannons , 679 buses, and 580 capsicum spray devices. According to reports of the November demonstration , police fired water cannons and tear gas directly at peaceful protesters. In the ensuing violence it is understood that dozens were injured, including one protestor (Baek Nam-gi) who was struck by the jet of a water cannon and remains unconscious seven months later. Criminal procedures were launched against 585 KCTU leaders and members, but no investigation has been opened into the violent actions of the police. Han’s sentencing has provoked widespread national and international condemnation. The...