Korean Government Workers to Join Labor Group

Government Workers to Join Labor Group
By Lee Hyo-sik
The Korea Times

The country’s largest government workers’ union plans to join one of the two biggest umbrella labor groups to more effectively stage its struggle against the government.

The Korean Government Employees’ Union (KGEU) with over 140,000 members is expected to join the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), the country’s second largest labor group, next month to demand full guarantee of their rights as unionists.

The union has said that in protest against the Local Government Workers Act, which goes into effective at the end of this month, it would remain an outlawed organization without seeking approval for a legitimate labor union.

Another government workers’ union, the Confederation of Government Employees’ Unions (CGEU) with a 70,000 membership, has also indicated that it would refuse to abide by the law, which prohibits public workers from taking collective action.

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