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The union of South Korean employees of the U.S. Forces Korea on Sunday rejected the forces' decision to lay off more than 1,000 local civilian staff. It threatened phased industrial action starting May that will culminate in a full strike if negotiations with the Korean government and the USFK produce no satisfactory results.
Kang In-shik, 62, head of the USFK Korean Employees Union, announced the decision in a telephone interview with the Chosun Ilbo on Sunday. "The abrupt mass layoff is the first of its kind," Kang said. He added the move was partly due to a deterioration in the Korea-U.S. relationship. Excerpts:
Q: It's being said that the reduction notice came abruptly.
A: The USFK notified us of the layoff by the end of September at around 3:45 p.m. Thursday saying because the Korean government has unconditionally slashed its share of the forces upkeep cost, the present manpower cannot be maintained. Natural manpower cutbacks from reduced U.S. troops have been discussed, but a layoff over a slashed share in the forces upkeep cost came up only very recently. The announcement came abruptly while we were soliciting cooperation from the Korea Federation of Trade Unions.
Q: Why do you think that situation came about?
A: A major factor was the worsening Korea-U.S. relationship. American troops are gradually leaving Korea, with only one or two of 10 departures from Korea being replaced. It's a sign of a deteriorating alliance. By contrast, the U.S.-Japan alliance relationship is much better, and the weight of the U.S. alliance is moving to Japan. The U.S. is concentrating in Japan 100,000 troops and moves are underway to upgrade the self-defense units into self-defense forces. We are becoming more and more estranged from America.
Q: Do you see a shift in our alliance with the U.S.?
A: I feel South Korea is pushing ahead with relations with North Korea and China without prior consultation with the United States with which we have maintained a long-time alliance.
Q: What kinds of problems will arise from the mass layoff of Korean workers?
A: A vacuum in USFK security strategy is unavoidable. Some 15,000 Korean staff are engaged in 240 kinds of duties related to fighting power, directly and indirectly. Among them are frontline armory maintenance and control, maintenance and transport of new equipment like tanks, observation post construction for military exercises, facilities maintenance and troops' food, clothing and shelter maintenance.
Q: How to you plan to deal with the layoff?
A: On Friday we sent a protest letter to the Ministry of Labor, and on Saturday we wrote to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense. Together with the Korean Federation of Trade Unions, we plan to discuss our future path, including industrial action against the government from Monday. If negotiations with the government and the USFK develop unsatisfactorily, we plan to go into a phased dispute starting May.
(Yoo Yong-won, bemil@chosun.com )
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