Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
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| Full name | Korean Confederation of Trade Unions |
|---|---|
| Founded | 11 November 1995 |
| Members | 682,418 (2007) |
| Affiliation | ITUC |
| Key people | Kim Young-Hoon, president |
| Office location | Seoul, South Korea |
| Country | South Korea |
| Website |
www.kctu.org (English) www.nodong.org (Korean) |
| Korean Confederation of Trade Unions | |
| Hangul | 전국민주노동조합총연맹 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | 全國民主勞動組合總連盟 |
| Revised Romanization | Jeon-guk Minju Nodong Johap Chongyeonmaeng |
| McCune–Reischauer | Chn'guk Minju Nodong Chohap Ch'ongynmaeng |
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), also known as Minju-nochong (Korean: 민주노총; acronym for KCTU in Korean language) is a national trade union centre officially established in 1995. Its predecessor was the National Council of Trade Unions (NCTU), established in 1990 as an independent alternative to the Federation of Korean Trade Unions. With 682,418 members in 2007, the KCTU accounted for 40.6% of trade union members in South Korea. The KCTU has more than 1,200 affiliated enterprise-level trade unions. It is the second largest trade union national center in South Korea, following the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU). On 1 April 2009, KCTU delegates at a special session elected Lim Seong-kyu as President. Of the two, the KCTU is generally considered to be the more militant.
In 2008, during massive "mad cow protests" the KCTU declared a general strike to protest the import of US beef on grounds that consuming the allegedly tainted beef could damage worker productivity.
In 2009, the union came under intense criticism for its cover up of the attempted sexual assault of a female union member by a high ranking union leader. The KCTU's perceived militancy and preoccupation with political matters unrelated to working conditions has also caused it to suffer a loss of members.
In July 2009, the KCTU was ordered to pay for the damages incurred from its destruction of 11 police vehicles during a violent rally two years previously.
After the liberation from the Japanese in 1945, and the subsequent coup d’etat in 1961, by Park Chung Hee, there existed only one legal trade union federation in Korea, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU). Park’s regime was truly authoritarian, to the extent he suppressed all political and business leaders they deemed corrupt. In essence, he arbitrarily restructured the unions and permitted only those he and his regime regarded as "loyal" to their cause. As a result, for almost two decades under the military regime of President Park, FKTU was substantially weakened and became subordinate to the repressive state and capital, the family owned conglomerates or chaebol, who dominated and monopolized the industries in Korea who incessantly expanded with the help from the government. Hence, the labor movement became very fragmented; nevertheless, they operated through localized unions, such as the miners, textile workers, anti-political activists, and various Catholic groups. By the 1990s, with the demise of the military regimes, chaebol groups of Korea began to reassert themselves with the introduction of automation production processes, decentralized factory location of production sights, and began to relocate the production to overseas, exacerbating the situation even further.
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