THE president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), Yang Kyung Soo, was arrested at dawn on September 1 in an ambush involving police squadrons in riot suppression gear and fire trucks surrounding the union headquarters at 5am and smashing their way into the union at 5.30am. 

Yang is a member of the autoworkers’ union KMWU through the Kia irregular workers’ branch.

The authorities pre-emptively arrested the president of South Korea’s largest trade union confederation to lock him up under pretrial detention while they investigate into his supposed crimes which they allege are: obstruction of general traffic through demonstration; violation of the Act on Assembly and Demonstration; and acts relating to infectious disease control.

The raid comes ahead of a general strike the KCTU is organising for October. 

Though the authorities say they do not aim to intimidate workers or dissuade them from legitimate trade union activities, their actions speak louder than words. 

Former UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Assembly and Association Maina Kiai wrote on this in Korea: “Charging assembly participants with certain criminal offences, such as the general obstruction of traffic, de facto criminalises the right to peaceful assembly.

“The choice to prosecute at all, and even more to charge participants with the serious offence of general obstruction of traffic, conveys a desire by the authorities to discourage assemblies on roads. 

“The special rapporteur reiterates that assemblies are an equally legitimate use of public space as commercial activity or the movement of vehicles and pedestrian traffic.”

Thus the arrest of the confederation president via storming the headquarters with police conveys the impression they wish to dissuade workers from continued protests about the ongoing employment crisis and safety and health at work crisis. 

The alleged crimes for which Yang was arrested relate to a protest rally that unions held on July 3.  

Amid continuing industrial disasters and dismissals during the Covid pandemic on working people, the July 3 rally demanded a moratorium on dismissals and urgent action and rights to protect lives and livelihoods.

However, bringing charges relating to infectious disease control and insinuating that the people should blame trade unions for the fourth Covid-19 wave and for the frustrations of the pandemic are unscrupulous scapegoating.

The truth is that no new coronavirus cases were linked to participation at that July 3 rally calling for a moratorium on dismissals and implementation of safety and health at work.  

Trade unions are being scapegoated and blamed for the government’s coronavirus containment and vaccination rollout problems ahead of the March 9 presidential elections.