Since the arrest warrants for the KCTU leaders were issued on July 24 until present, hundreds of police have surrounded the KCTU headquarters building, stopping and searching all of those who enter the building. Search warrants for the houses of all those with arrest warrants were also issued. Jin Young-ok (KCTU First Vice-president), Mr. Lee Yong-shik (KCTU General Secretary), Mr. Jung Gab-deuk (KMWU President), Mr. Nam Taek-gyu (KMWU First Vice-president) and all 6 of the top elected officers of the Hyundai Motor Branch (Mr. Yoon Hae-mo, Mr. Kim Tae-gon, Kim Jong-il, Mr. Jung Chang-bong, Mr. Joo In-koo, Mr. Jo Chang-min), which had participated actively in the strike. They include Mr. Lee Suk-haeng (KCTU President), Ms. The prosecutor filed for arrest warrants against and has pursued the arrest of the leadership of KCTU, KMWU and Hyundai Motor Branch on the grounds of ‘obstruction of business’ provision in section 314 of the Penal Code. The prosecutor and the Ministry of Labor declared the July 2nd strike clearly illegal, and even before the launch of strike, on June 30th, the 66 senior prosecutors called an urgent meeting at which it called the general strike a ‘political strike’ and announced they would pursue investigations against law-breakers. The Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU) played a leading role in the general strike. In the midst of mass candlelight protests calling for renegotiations of the April 18th Protocol on importation of US beef, KCTU decided to go into general strike on July 2 calling for protection of people’s right to health and renegotiation of April 18 Protocol to reflect food safety concerns. We are writing to you to call for solidarity to protest South Korean Lee Myung-bak government repression against the KCTU and fundamental trade union rights. The KCTU had planned to stage large-scale protest rallies in 14 cities and provinces across the country, including Seoul and Busan, as part of the strike involving about 500,000, or roughly half of its 1.1 million members, to bring labor issues to the fore in the runup to the 2022 presidential election.īut the actual number of strike participants is expected to be much smaller.The police searching the car going out from the KCTU office without showing any authorative documents including search warrant. The exact number of participants in the rally was not available, though about 25,000-30,000 unionists were expected to join the protest in downtown Seoul, according to the KCTU. Police mobilized about 12,000 personnel and set up fences and bus walls in central Seoul to prevent the rally. Some of them scuffled with police trying to prevent them from moving to the rally site. and began marching toward Seodaemun Station, holding flags and banners calling for labor rights. The protesters affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) poured onto the streets in downtown en masse around 1:30 p.m. 20 (Yonhap) - Unionists of a militant umbrella labor organization took to the streets in central Seoul on Wednesday as part of a one-day general strike, some of them clashing with police trying to block their march. (ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead UPDATES with information in paras 1-6 CHANGES photos)
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