Who Drove the Martyr Yang Hoi-dong to His Death?

written by Cha Hanseon (Issue Briefing Team)
translated by Alice S. Kim (Translation Team)

On May 1, May Day, a construction worker set himself on fire. The crackdown of the construction union by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration drove Yang Hoi-dong to his death.  His death is the social murder of the Yoon Suk-yeol government.

Illegal multi-level subcontracting is rampant, and delayed/unpaid wages ongoing. Construction workers who have struggled to change construction sites, which relegate worker safety to the background, demanding to be treated with respect as workers and technicians, are being cornered as/ turned into criminals accompanied by extortion threats at regular intervals. Since January of this year, there have been 13 seizures and searches, 15 arrests, and 950 union members subpoenaed for investigation. The massive crackdown against the construction union has taken the life of the martyr.

Looking back on the past year of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, workers and labor unions have been treated with hostility and attacked on a regular basis. The Yoon Suk-yeol administration, which has referred to the trucker union, Cargo Truckers Solidarity, as an aristocratic union, have also come to maligning construction workers “construction gangsters.” And they have continued to raise the level of repression against workers and trade unions. This is an attempt to turn back the clock to a time when there were no unions. What they want is to create a labor environment suited to the tastes of construction capital. To that end, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration took every opportunity, however small, to shrink union activism, and is gradually expanding the scope of their activities to all labor unions and worker’s rights in general. 

The Chosun Ilbo’s use of fake news about the death of the martyr, and the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs blindly following its lead reveals the true intentions of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, which is trying to use the oppression and death of a martyr as an opportunity and driving force to mobilize hatred against unions.

A trade union is an independent, democratic, mass organization of workers. Our constitution guarantees three labor rights: the right to organize, the right to collective bargaining, and the right to joint action. Then by what right does the Yoon Suk-yeol administration demand this or that from the unions? The Yoon Suk-yeol administration is not an almighty power residing above the constitution. If you make an agreement with the ILO that is not kept, then what is the point of signing onto such an agreement! 

The power of the government is something that is temporarily entrusted to the government by the people and not something to be used with which to strangle the people. If this is overlooked, the government should be well aware that it would encounter resistance from the people starting with workers.

 ▲ In celebration of the 133rd International Worker’s Day, participants of the International Worker’s May Day rally hosted by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) in Seoul on May 1st shout slogans opposing the deleterious labor reforms and calling for Yoon Suk-yeol to step down on Sejongdaero Boulevard. (Source: Labor Today.)

Accordingly, the KCTU and civil society camps maintain that the Yoon Suk-yeol administration did nothing but wreak havoc on labor, people’s livelihood, democracy, and peace in the first year of office. In the process the administration has condemned legitimate trade union activities as illegal while perpetrating an all-out attack on labor, leading also to the death of Yang Hoi-dong. The people stand determined to make an all-out struggle for the realization of the martyr’s wishes and for the lives and survival of workers and citizens.

I believe now is the time for us all to come together and join forces.