CALL FOR SUPPORT:MIGRANT WORKERS IN KOREA

Greetings from the ETU-MB, Republic of Korea

The ETU-MB (Equality Trade Union–Migrants Branch, a part of KCTU/Korean Confederation of Trade Unions) is a militant migrant worker union comprised of undocumented workers in South Korea. This union was courageously formed in 2001 as a response to reactionary and oppressive labour policy that the workers suffered directly from. Previous to its
inception, migrants depended on the charity of religious organizations and NGOS (this is still generally the case). Strongly committed to
empowerment of the workers, it is a union comprised of the migrants themselves, staunchly refusing to beg for their rights.

Up to 2/3 of all foreign workers in Korea are undocumented, numbering close to 300,000. Like migrant workers worldwide, they support not only themselves with their earnings but their families back home. The costs incurred by the migrants to get to Korea are exorbitant: workers commonly borrow money from families, friends, and neighbours to pay for their passage to Korea. Typically, this can be up to $10,000 US and a worker may have to work for 3 years to payback the loan. Migrant worker earnings comprise a vital part of their home countries economies.

Here in Korea, migrants arrive through the government’s so called “Industrial Trainee System?(ITS). This system is nothing but a thinly veiled scheme that allows migrants to be imported en-masse and forced to work for drastically substandard wages in poor conditions. It is modern slavery. Predictably, these “trainees" represent a very small minority of the migrant worker population in Korea as they flee to greener pastures as soon as they get the chance - seeking work as labourers in small and
medium sized factories.

Recently, the Korean Labour Board moved to implement a new revised migrant worker scheme ,the EPS (Employee Permit System). This scheme is nothing but a reworking of the trainee system: it allows workers to only work for the factories that sponsor them and only for up to three years after renewing their visas with them. At the end of three years they must leave the country. It doesn’t allow them to take collective action (to strike), which is the backbone of worker strength. It also doesn’t recognize the workers currently present in Korea as it applies only to newcomers. Finally, three years is only enough time to save the bare minimum to pay back the loans taken to get to Korea.

The ETU-MB strongly opposes both the trainee system and the proposed EPS. Instead, they advocate the WPS (Workers Permit System), which will guarantee them full workers rights: the right to organize, the right to collectively bargain, and the right to strike. The Immigration Department of South Korea annually cracks down on undocumented workers, using the threat of deportation as a weapon,
ensuring the passive compliance and obeisance of the workers.

But the focus of the deportation sweep has been aimed at members of the ETU-MB since it’s inception. This year’s crackdown is expected to be more vicious than ever with the introduction of the EPS: they have announced that they ambitiously aim to deport 200,000 workers.

Please read, sign, and circulate the following petition as widely as possible: the ETU-MB relies heavily on international support to pressure the Korean government to grant them their rights as human
beings and workers.

Write letters/emails/faxes to the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Korea ?you can deliver them to the consulate/embassy in your city.

Please send the letter of protest to the Ministry of Justice and to the
President of South Korea.
Here the e-mail addresses:
President: president [at] president.go.kr
Ministry of Justice
Ms. Kang Kum-sil: kskang7 [at] moj.go.kr

Please sign the International Declaration and send us back. If you write other letters, please send us copies of it.

Hold a protest at the embassies/consulates.
If you hold rallies or demonstrations in your city, please send us pictures and press releases.

Here
http://www.base21.org/
You can read more about the issue

In solidarity
Christian Karl
International Secretary
ETU-MB