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Change Your Life! |
Thousands of South Korean workers march ahead of May Day |
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April 30, 2000 SEOUL, APR 29 (AP) - About 15,000 workers marched through downtown Seoul on Saturday ahead of May Day, demanding a shorter work week and opposing the sale of auto firms to foreign investors.
"Five-day work week," they chanted, picking up the slogan blared from loudspeakers mounted on vans. "Let's crush foreign sales and protect our right to survival."
Organizers said similar May Day protests were held in about a dozen other cities on Saturday but details were not available.
The protesters in Seoul, who included some relatives of workers and some college students, marched into the streets after a two-hour rally in front of the railway station downtown.
Led by a traditional Korean farmers' band, the workers paraded 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) along busy streets, carrying hundreds of red, yellow and blue placards. Traffic was backed up for miles (kilometers).
Police stood a few meters (yards) apart along the center line of the eight-lane boulevards and tried to keep the march orderly. Workers distributed leaflets appealing for support but few pedestrians responded.
The protests were largely peaceful and there were no reports of clashes or arrests.
The rally and march were organized by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, a militant umbrella labor group which claims a membership of 500,000, many of them in the car and shipbuilding industries.
Another major labor group, the conservative Federation of Korean Trade Unions, planned separate May Day rallies and marches in Seoul and elsewhere on Monday.
Confederation officials said Saturday's protest was part of their plan to organize a nationwide strike in late May. They vowed to organize more protests in the coming weeks.
Workers demanded that their work week be cut from 44 hours to 40 hours, without a cut in pay. They claimed that South Korea has the longest work week of all industrialized countries.
They denounced plans to sell ailing Daewoo Motor Co. to a foreign investor. General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor of the United States are reportedly the front-runners in international bidding. A successful bidder will be chosen by September.
Last week, French carmaker Renault SA took over another ailing South Korean auto firm, Samsung Motors Inc., for dlrs 562 million, becoming the first foreign car producer and operator in South Korea.
"No more leak of national wealth," protesters shouted, referring to the Samsung-Renault deal, which they consider a giveaway. South Korean workers fear mass layoffs under foreign ownership.
As the one-hour march reached a commercial district in the city center lined with Burger King, KFC and several other American fast food restaurants, some Daewoo workers shouted "Down with U.S."
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