Solidarity remarks for the Busan Civil Society Forum (KCTU)

Speech delivered by Young-Hoon Kim, President of Korean Confederation of Trade Unions at the Busan Civil Society Forum on 26th November 2011.

Good Morning. I am Young-Hoon Kim, the president of Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which hosts the Busan Global Civil Society Forum (BCSF) with Korea Civil Society Forum on International Development Cooperation (KoFID). I am very happy to meet the representatives of civil society organizations and trade unions from countries around the world. We all gathered here in Busan to make sure that the voice of the civil society and trade union heard. I wholeheartedly welcome each and every one of you.

As the global financial crisis, which started in the United States at the end of 2008, takes its toll on all over the world in a much more aggravated form, the last ten month of this year have witnessed outrages expressed by the people at every corner of the world. From the uprising of people in Egypt, which drew attention from the whole world earlier this year, to the “Arab Spring,” the revolutionary wave which took place in many countries in the Middle East and North Africa, they were all triggered by people’s discontent over high unemployment rate, low wages, and spread of poverty. More Recently, the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, which was originally started from the Wall Street, the US, the center of advanced nations, has spread to all over the world, other struggles of people, such as the “Indignados” in Europe were following. Many people, from students and the youth, who are suffering from student loans and shrinking labor market, to those who lost their job and are in debt, are joining in these movements.

The G20 summit meeting, which was created as a troubleshooter for the global financial crisis, has so far failed to provide any solution whatsoever, and is returning to neo-liberalism, emphasizing fiscal soundness and belt-tightening. Unlike its initial declaration, it has concentrated enormous wealth on financial capital, large conglomerates, and the few rich people, while making the general public suffer from increasing number of non-regular jobs and growing unemployment, wage cut, reducing social protection, and increasing poverty. This clearly shows that the existing development paradigm, which is based on market fundamentalism, has increased poverty and inequality rather than reducing them.

The Korean government says that it hosts the 4th High Level Forum as it is transforming itself from a recipient to a donor country, thanks to the economic development that the nation has achieved so far. It wants to spread its development experience to all over the world. However, the reality facing the Korean people is rather harsh. This year alone, several dismissed workers killed themselves. It is because most companies can easily lay off workers on the grounds of managerial reasons, and because once laid-off, they are driven to the edge of survival without any social protection. That is why we are chanting, “Firing one is like firing a gun.”

What is worse is that Korean workers are suffering from the longest-hours of work in the world. The average working hour for the last year is amounted to a staggering 2,200 hours, which is 450 hours longer than the OECD average. Long working hours make many workers be troubled with serious health issues. For Non-regular workers, who take up more than the half of the population, it is too often impossible for them to organize a trade union to claim their rights. Female irregular workers, in particular, are fired because they let people know sexual harassment they experienced under the unstable employment status. I believe that development cooperation led by the Korean government should not contribute to spread of this bitter reality to other nations.

To this date, trade unions around the world have acted to make sure that everybody can equally enjoy the fruit of development. We have been fighting to improve the working condition and wage, to create more decent works, and to expand social protection. We have also been carrying on struggles for “just transition” against finance, climate, and energy crisis. Moreover, we have rich experience of international coalition/solidarity within the trade union movements. In this regard, I would like to remind you that the voice of trade unions should be louder in development cooperation, and that not only development NGOs, but trade unions are already important actors for development. I hope the BSCF would serve as an opportunity to strengthen solidarity between trade unions and NGS. Thank you.