Presidential Nominees Support Labor Unions’ Political Activities

By Son Key-young, Korea Times, 20 November 1997: 18:29

The three major presidential contenders yesterday promised to make legal preparations helping labor unions take part in political activities.

In a forum organized by the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU), Lee Hoi-chang of the New Korea Party, Kim Dae-jung of the National Congress for New Politics, and Rhee In-je of the New Party by the People gave speeches on the labor policies of their parties.

As the revised labor laws guarantee labor unions’ political activities, it is desirable to revise the election and political fund laws to meet the spirit of the labor laws, said Kim Dae-jung, ranked first in all recent opinion polls. The other two candidates also expressed support on trade unions’ political activities.

NKP candidate Lee Hoi-chang promised to make efforts to ensure that two-thirds of the national pension management commission would be represented by pension subscribers, a demand from the labor circle. In fact, the commission has been under fire for alleged mismanagement of subscribers’ money.

Lee vowed to meet the labor circle’s demands concerning wage payment of full-time union staff, the dispatch of workers to other work places and other controversial labor issues.

He also said that his party seeks to expand the coverage of unemployment insurances to workplaces employing less than 10 workers.

Meanwhile, Kim Dae-jung, referring to severance payment for workers at bankrupt corporations, said that his party will seek to protect the workers’ severance payment through the mid-term liquidation scheme or other measures.

Rhee In-je said that his party would work to improve human resources development programs by overhauling vocational training programs to meet the requirements of an information age.

He also promised to reduce the dependence of laborers’ welfare on each corporation and instead promote state-level contributions to workers’ welfare.

Rhee also believes that the government will have to increase welfare programs for part-time employees as well as workers for small and medium industries.