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DESCRIPTION:11/30 SF Solidarity Rally Speak Out For Korean Workers And People\n\nJoin 
 the solidarity rally for striking Korean KCTU workers and Korean people. 
 The railway workers are being joined by hundreds of thousands of workers on 
 a general strike against the anti-labor reactionary Park Geun-hye  
 government. The  government has been paid off by the Choebels to deregulate 
 labor and destroy worker rights. There is also a major corruption crisis 
 not only involving the government but Samsung, Hyundai but many other 
 companies. President Park Geun-hye has also stopped public school teachers 
 from unionizing and sought to bust their union and well as other public 
 worker unions throughout the country. Millions have already rallied to 
 demand her resignation and now is the time to join with Korean unions and 
 working people in supporting their struggle for labor, justice and human 
 rights.\nKorean Consulate Rally and Speak Out In Support Of Korean Workers 
 And People\n\nWednesday November 30, 2016 12:00 noon\n3500 Clay 
 St./Laurel\nSan Francisco\n\nInitial Sponsor\nUnited Public Workers For 
 Action\nJack Heyman, President of Transport Workers Solidarity 
 Committee\nRoger Scott, AFT 2121 CCSF Delegate To SF Labor 
 Council\n\nwww.upwa.info\n(415)282-1908\n\nWW11-22- 16 Korea General 
 Strike,  Labor Elections and IBT and Muslim 
 Registration\nhttps://soundcloud.com/workweek-radio/ww11-22-16-korea-gen-strike-labor-elections-and-ibt-and-muslim-registration\n\n11/30 
 International Day Of Action To Support the Korea general strike for 
 workers’ rights! Protest At All Korean Embassies and Consulates-General 
 Strike Called For Nov 30\nSupport the Korea general strike for workers’ 
 rights!\nhttp://www.industriall-union.org/support-the-korea-general-strike-for-workers-rights\n\n17.11.2016\nStruggling 
 against the government’s attacks on labour rights, unions in South Korean 
 are holding a general strike for workers’ rights on 30 November. 
 IndustriALL is calling for global days of action to support the unions’ 
 fight. \n\nKorean unions are struggling against a government crackdown on 
 labour rights. The administration of South Korean President Park oversaw 
 police raids of trade unions’ offices and the arrest of hundreds of 
 peaceful trade unionists.\n\nPark has attempted to make changes to Korean 
 labour law that include permitting firing without due process, cutting 
 wages for senior employees and allowing more outsourcing.\n\nThe Park 
 government has been implicated in a scandal in which major Korean 
 corporations paid bribes to foundations controlled by an ally of Park in 
 exchange for support for anti-labour policies and other favors.\n\nAs part 
 of an ongoing fight back that recently included one million Koreans 
 marching through Seoul, Korean unions have called a general strike for 30 
 November.\n\nJoin in the global days of action to support the Korean unions 
 between now and 30 November by:\n\n	• Sending a protest letter. Put it on 
 your union’s letterhead, insert your union’s name in the first 
 sentence, add a signature and send it to the email addresses listed at the 
 top of the letter.\n	• Taking selfies with the solidarity sign (links to 
 the right) and post them online with hashtag #KoreaGeneralStrike and send 
 them to press@industriall-union.org to share.\n	• Holding an action at a 
 Korean embassy or consulate or at a location of one of the anti-labour, 
 corrupt Korean corporations such as Hyundai, LG, Posco or Samsung. You 
 could deliver a protest letter to the embassy, consulate or management. 
 Make sure to send pics or video of the action to 
 press@industriall-union.org to share.\nIndustriALL Global Union general 
 secretary Valter Sanches, who recently visited Korea on a solidarity 
 mission, says:\n\nI urge you to support this general strike by 
 participating in the global days of action and show the Korean government 
 the strength of global solidarity.\n\nIn Korea Up to 1 million rally to 
 demand Park’s 
 ouster\nhttp://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20161112000155\nPublished : 
 2016-11-12 23:14\nUpdated : 2016-11-13 02:01\nIn the largest 
 anti-government rally in decades, up to 1 million South Koreans took to the 
 streets in central Seoul on Saturday, demanding President Park Geun-hye’s 
 resignation over a scandal involving her longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil. 
 \n\nFrom City Hall through Gwanghwamun Square to Anguk station, protestors 
 packed the boulevards just hundreds of meters from Park’s presidential 
 residence of Cheong Wa Dae, turning the area into a vast sea of candlelight 
 in the evening. \n\nOrganizers said over 1 million gathered for the 
 protest. The police estimate was 260,000.  \n\nIt was the largest rally 
 held in South Korea since the democratic uprising in June 1987, showing 
 continuing public rage toward President Park suspected of letting her 
 civilian friend meddle in state affairs and playing a part in extorting 
 donations from local firms.\n\n\nSome thousands of protestors hold up signs 
 demanding for President Park Geun-hye's resignation in Seoul Square in 
 front of Seoul's Cityhall on Saturday. (Jo He-rim/The Korea Herald)\n\nAs 
 of 11 p.m., thousands of protestors were still peacefully marching near 
 Gyeongbok Palace, some 800 meters away from the presidential office, 
 chanting “Park Geun-hye, step down!” and holding candles. Musical 
 performances continued into the early hours on Sunday in Gwanghwamun 
 Square. \n\nThe protest was staged in a peaceful manner despite the record 
 high number of participants, with no major injuries or clashes reported. 
 \n\nThough organized by a union of some 1,500 civic groups and labor 
 unions, the rally drew unaffiliated citizens of all ages who came with 
 their friends and families. \n\nScores of protestors told The Korea Herald 
 that they felt angry about an unelected civilian, Park’s friend Choi, 
 “running the country behind the scenes” and that joining the rally was 
 the least they could do to salvage the country’s democracy. \n\nChoi 
 Myung-ok, 44, said that she felt proud to be part of such a historic 
 moment. \n\n“This government has made fools of Korean citizens. We have 
 put up with the government failing to deal with the Sewol ferry disaster, 
 but this time I had enough of President Park Geun-hye,” said Choi, who 
 came to the scene with her family. “I cannot feel helpless anymore. It is 
 a chance to learn that we should better oversee those in power.” 
 \n\n\nProtestors color in a poster reading, "Democracy" in Gwanghwamun 
 Square, central Seoul on Saturday. (Ock Hyun-ju/The Korea Herald)\nYoon 
 Song-yi, 37, who brought her 6-year-old child, said that she wanted to 
 teach her child what democracy was.\n\n“When my child asked me who this 
 country’s owner was, I wanted to teach her it was us, Koreans, not a 
 handful of powerful people,” she said. “I was not interested in 
 politics before, but I had to come because I want my child to live in a 
 better society.” \n\nKim Beom-geun, 18, was one of the many teenagers in 
 school uniform who traveled for hours to Seoul on a chartered bus to join 
 the rally. \n\n“I will be eligible to vote in a couple of years. I came 
 here to watch and learn so that I will not make such mistakes in the 
 future,” said Kim, who came from Yeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. 
 “Hearing all these people shouting in one voice, I feel my mind filling 
 up.” \n\nA 69-year-old man, who wanted to be identified only by his 
 surname Kim, said, “I gave her a vote because I trusted her. How can she 
 betray us like this?\n\n“Why only powerless people should abide by law 
 when all the powerful people break the law?” \n\n\nTens of thousands of 
 rally-goers hold candles in Gwanghwamun Square, central Seoul on Saturday. 
 (Yonhap)\n\nThree opposition parties joined the rally, along with many of 
 their presidential hopefuls. \n\nAmong them were Moon Jae-in of the 
 Democratic Party of Korea, Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party and Park 
 Won-soon, the Seoul mayor. \n\n“Some worry if the president steps down, 
 there will be chaos. But the fact that she stays in her position is only 
 making the situation worse. I demand for her to resign,” said Ahn during 
 the rally. \n\nMoon, former chairman of the Democratic Party, said the 
 president had already been impeached by public sentiment, if not yet by 
 law. \n\n“I ask President Park to sincerely hear out the voices of 
 thousands of people holding candles here and answer them,” he said. “If 
 Park has any patriotism left in her, and if she still cares about the 
 nation, she should react to heed public’s call.”\n\nThe event kicked 
 off at 4 p.m. following a string of separate demonstrations across Seoul. 
 The protestors’ march was peaceful and cheerful, with participants making 
 speeches on stage and celebrities performing in front of the crowds.\n\n\nA 
 woman dressed as Choi Soon-sil pose for picture at the rally scene in 
 Gwanghwamun Square, central Seoul on Saturday. (Ock Hyun-ju/The Korea 
 Herald)\n\n“It is so fun and peaceful. I am learning again that this is 
 democracy,” said Kang Soon-ja, a woman in her late 50s, after taking a 
 photo with an artist dressed up as Choi Soon-sil at Gwanghwamun Square. 
 \n\nVarious groups came out to voice their opposition to a series of 
 policies of the Park administration, including labor market reforms, 
 deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system and the 
 reinstatement of state-authored history textbooks. \n\nIn several 
 locations, right-wing civic groups and Park’s supporters held counter 
 rallies to condemn anti-Park protestors for “plunging the country into 
 chaos.” Calling them “North Korean sympathizers, they argued that 
 Park’s presidency should be protected. \n\nIt was the first time that all 
 major roads connected to central Seoul had been made open to the 
 protestors. The police earlier imposed partial bans on several planned 
 marches, citing traffic disruption, but the decisions were reversed by the 
 court.\n\n“Allowing assemblies demanding Park Geun-hye’s resignation to 
 be held near the presidential office is a way to prove South Korea is a 
 democratic country,” the court said in the ruling.\n\nA series of massive 
 anti-government rallies held last year spiraled into violence as police 
 sought to fight off protestors with water cannons. Baek Nam-gi, 69-year-old 
 activist farmer, died after a direct hit from a water cannon left him in a 
 coma. This time, there were no major clashes. \n\n\nPolice buses stationed 
 in front of Gwanghwamun in central Seoul, Saturday. (Ock Hyun-ju/The Korea 
 Herald)\n\nPolice dispatched some 25,000 officers in central Seoul to keep 
 public order. They built barricades with police buses to surround Gyeongbok 
 Palace in an attempt to block protestors from marching on the presidential 
 office. \n\nDespite Park’s two televised apologies over the scandal, 
 personnel reshuffle in her Cabinet and proposal to relinquish some of her 
 executive powers, South Koreans’ calls for Park’s resignation show no 
 signs of abating. \n\nThe scandal centers on Park’s longtime friend Choi 
 Soon-sil, who holds no government post and is accused of meddling in state 
 affairs and personnel appointments behind the scenes.  \n\nChoi and 
 Park’s former presidential aides are suspected of using their ties with 
 the president to force donations from conglomerates to the Mir and K-Sports 
 foundations which Choi allegedly set up and run for her private use. \n\nA 
 series of revelations increasingly implicate park in the fundraising 
 activities. Park apologized for allowing her guard to drop with Choi 
 Soon-sil, but distanced herself from Choi’s alleged influence-peddling 
 and embezzlement of public funds for personal gain. \n\nPark’s approval 
 rating has remained at a record-low of 5 percent, setting an all-time low 
 for any sitting South Korean president.\n\nBy Ock Hyun-ju and Jo He-rim 
 (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com) (herim@heraldcorp.com)\n\nKorean Workers 
 Launch Major Wave of Strikes, Winning International 
 Support\nhttp://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/19558/korean_workers_launch_major_wave_of_strikes_winning_international_support\nMONDAY, 
 OCT 17, 2016, 1:13 PM  ·  EDIT\nKorean Workers Launch Major Wave of 
 Strikes, Winning International Support\nBY TIM SHORROCK\n\n\nThe strikes 
 pose one of the biggest crises in South Korean labor since the 1980s, when 
 workers seized on the country's democratization to create one of Asia's 
 most dynamic labor movements. (Photo Credit: Korean Public Service and 
 Transport Workers' Union)   \n\nOver the past few weeks, thousands of South 
 Korean transport workers have gone on strike to protest against government 
 “reform” proposals that would make it easier for employers to fire 
 workers, weaken seniority protections won through collective bargaining and 
 privatize some state-owned industries.\n\nThe strikes, and the South Korean 
 government’s fierce crackdown on labor, have generated an unprecedented 
 response from global unions over what they see as clear-cut violations of 
 workers’ rights to freedom of association.\n\n“This has become a 
 challenge to the whole international community and is enormously damaging 
 to the Korean government’s international reputation,” Stephen Cotton, 
 general secretary of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), 
 told In These Times.\n\nIn Washington, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is 
 having “frequent meetings” with South Korea’s ambassador to discuss 
 his concerns over the situation in Korea, said Cathy Feingold, the 
 federation’s top foreign affairs officer. “We’re very 
 involved.”\n\nThe U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, which includes a 
 clause designed to protect labor rights, “is another hook” U.S. unions 
 might use to assist their Korean allies, Feingold said. The protections in 
 that pact, including freedom of association, can be enforced through trade 
 sanctions and fines, but are rarely used.\n\nThe strikes pose one of the 
 biggest crises in South Korean labor since the 1980s, when workers seized 
 on the country's democratization to create one of Asia's most dynamic labor 
 movements. In the aftermath of the democratic revolution in 1987, the 
 Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) was born out of independent 
 organizing efforts that had been stifled for years in heavy industry, 
 automobiles, transportation and shipbuilding. It is now the second largest 
 union federation in the country.\n\nThe latest actions began on October 10, 
 when more than 7,000 owner-operators in trucking joined a national strike 
 against the government’s plan for deregulation of the trucking transport 
 market. The conservative government of President Park Geun-hye responded by 
 declaring the strike illegal, and her transportation minister called the 
 walkout “an act of betrayal” of the nation.\n\nOn day one of the 
 strike, more than 4,000 riot police surrounded truckers massed in front of 
 freight depots, including the “New Port” complex in the southern 
 industrial city of Busan, the truckers’ union said. Fifty-five activists 
 were arrested and five injured, the union added. The Yonhap news agency 
 reported that the South Korean military mobilized soldiers to replace 
 striking truck drivers, effectively transforming them into scabs.\n\nThe 
 strikers belong to the “Cargo Truckers Solidarity Division” of the 
 Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union (KPTU) known as 
 TruckSol. Wol-san Liem, the KPTU’s director of international and Korean 
 Peninsula affairs, said that the government responded like it did because 
 of the truckers’ “potential power” as well as their “precarious 
 status as independent contractors.” The truckers’ union is part of the 
 larger KCTU.\n\nWorking conditions for Korean truck drivers are 
 dismal.\n\n“They face unreasonable schedules, long hours, multiple levels 
 of subcontracting, and low rates that put them in a really difficult 
 place,” Liem said. “The pressures force them to speed, overload and 
 drive at night for long hours—disastrous to health and family life and 
 also dangerous to other road users.”\n\nShe added that problems are 
 compounded because drivers who own their trucks are treated as independent 
 contractors and denied the rights to form and join unions, collectively 
 bargain and strike.\n\n“This means they don’t have legal trade union 
 rights,” Liem said. While it’s not illegal for owner-operators to 
 “collectively refuse to work,” she added, “the government and 
 conservative media try to paint the strike as illegal and our members as a 
 violent mob.”\n\nThe truckers’ strike is the latest event in an autumn 
 of industrial actions launched by Korean unions. In late September, other 
 KPTU transport affiliates began a general strike against the government's 
 imposition of performance-related pay and a termination system. Those 
 actions will supposedly align the Korean economy with international 
 practices but in fact provide tools for employers to easily get rid of 
 excess and militant workers.\n\nOne of KPTU’s affiliates, the Korean 
 Railway Workers’ Union, has been particularly active in that strike 
 because the government's privatization plans include turning over the 
 country's national rail system to conglomerates called chaebol that already 
 dominate the economy. Rail and subway workers also oppose the imposition of 
 the new merit-based salary systemthat would make it easier for employers to 
 fire workers who don’t meet certain quotas.\n\nDuring the rail strike, 
 the KPTU’s Liem said, 165 union officers were suspended from their jobs. 
 Worse, employers filed a lawsuit seeking damages of 165 billion won (about 
 $145 million) from the union and charged 19 union officers with 
 “obstruction,” she said.\n\nStrikes have also taken place in the 
 financial and automobile industries. This month, the union representing 
 workers at Hyundai Motor Company, one of the world’s largest car 
 producers, resumed talks with management “after months of strikes in the 
 automaker’s worst-ever industrial dispute,” the Reuters news agency 
 reported (The talks concluded last week, when 63 percent of Hyundai’s 
 workers voted to accept a new contract).\n\nThere was no let-up in 
 transportation strikes, however. Despite the government’s attempt to play 
 down their impact, the Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and 
 Transport said on October 10 that more than 40 percent of the roughly 
 18,000 unionized workers on railroads and subways were taking part in the 
 strike.\n\n“Since the start of the walkout by railway workers, the 
 operation of cargo trains has been reduced to nearly half of the usual 
 level, forcing local firms to depend on cargo trucks to haul their export 
 and import shipments to and from the country's major seaports,” reported 
 Yonhap, which is owned by the government.\n\nMeanwhile, the ITF and Public 
 Services International (PSI), the global federation of public sector 
 workers, have asked the International Labor Organization (ILO) to intervene 
 to ensure that the Park government respects the rights of workers in South 
 Korea to freedom of association.\n\nThe strikes in South Korea, the ITF’s 
 Cotton said in an email, “have been triggered by the government ignoring 
 its own laws by imposing drastic new labour practices in the public sector. 
 It is no secret that this is a precursor to the introduction of widespread 
 privatization.” Yet, despite labor’s objections, “every attempt by 
 the unions to seek talks with the government has been 
 rejected.”\n\nGlobal unions and human rights groups have been 
 particularly angered by the imprisonment of labor leaders in South Korea, 
 including Han Sang-gyun, the president of the KCTU. He was sentenced in 
 July to five years in jail after he was convicted on charges of organizing 
 a massive rally in Seoul last November that was declared illegal by the 
 government.  \n\nDuring that demonstration, an activist, Baek Nam-gi, was 
 knocked to the ground by police water cannons and suffered serious brain 
 injury. His death on September 25—and a stand-off with the government 
 over its attempt to seize Baek’s body for an autopsy—has sparked 
 demonstrations and vigils all over the country, and has become a national 
 symbol of the struggle against authoritarian rule and repression.\n\nThe 
 ITF and PSI raised the arrests of Han and other union leaders in a joint 
 letter to the ILO in September. “The alarming use of arbitrary detention 
 and judicial harassment against (Korean) trade unionists for organizing and 
 participating in public rallies is a major concern,” the unions wrote in 
 a letter signed by Cotton and PSI General Secretary Rosa Pavanelli. “The 
 ITF and the international union movement will never accept the imprisonment 
 of trade union leaders for legitimate trade union activities,” Cotton 
 added in his email.\n\nThe AFL-CIO spoke out in June when it issued a 
 statement in support of the KCTU’s Han. And, in a gesture of solidarity 
 this week, the federation has invited KCTU officials to New York to speak 
 at the United Nations on a recent special rapporteur’s report on freedom 
 of association, the AFL-CIO’s Feingold said. That report, issued in 
 January, criticized “a gradual regression on the rights to freedom of 
 peaceful assembly.”\n\nOn October 12, as the truckers’ strike heated up 
 in Korea, unions from around the world joined in a global day of solidarity 
 with TruckSol and the Korean strikers. In San Francisco, a protest at the 
 South Korean Consulate was led by United Public Workers for Action, a 
 coalition that seeks to unite workers in the public sector. The campaign 
 can be followed on Twitter at hashtag #KoreanStrikeforJustice.\n\nThe 
 global labor movement, the ITF’s Cotton said, will “continue to give 
 every support to workers in South Korea until the government starts to 
 respect international law and enters meaningful negotiations with the 
 unions.”\n https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/11/29/18794243.php
SUMMARY:SF Solidarity Rally Speak Out For Korean Workers And People
LOCATION:Korean Consulate\n3500 Clay St./Laurel\nSan Francisco\n
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/11/29/18794243.php
DTSTART:20161130T200000Z
DTEND:20161130T210000Z
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