Yang Gyeong-soo elected president of the KCTU

Entry 2020.12.24 07:35 | Revision 2020.12.24 07:47

Yang Gyeong-soo (44), head of the Gyeonggi Democratic Trade Union Regional Headquarters, was elected as the next president of the National Federation of Democratic Trade Unions. The KCTU’s fight against the government is expected to become even stronger.

On the 24th, the KCTU announced the results of the second round for the election of the next president, chief vice president and general secretary. He said it was done. Both elected candidates will lead the KCTU for three years starting January 1 of next year.

Candidate Taek-geun Yoon and candidate Jong-deok Jeon, who ran in tandem with both elected candidates, were elected as Senior Vice President and General Secretary, respectively.

Candidate Sang-koo Kim No. 1, who entered the final with a promise of social negotiation, garnered just 228,000,786 votes (44.3%).

Yang-elect was born in 1976 and this year he is 44 years old. After former president Kim Young-hoon (elected in 2010), he was elected president of the KCTU at age 40 for the second time.

In 2001, he served as president of the Yongin campus, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and president of the Gyeonggi-Incheon Student Association. As Lee Seok-ki, a former member of the United Progressive Party, he is a member of the ‘Eastern Union of Gyeonggi’ within the national conference affiliated with National Liberation (NL). This is the first time that the Eastern Gyeonggi Federation has been nominated for the independent president of the KCTU.

Both elected are the first non-regular workers among the former presidents of the KCTU. He served as deputy chairman of the Hwaseong branch of Kia Motors Corporation of the Metals Union, and is currently the head of the KCTU’s Gyeonggi headquarters.

Both elected candidates vowed to fight hard during the election. He announced that he would begin preparing for a general strike as soon as he was elected president in a joint debate, and suggested November 3 of next year as the date of the general strike. Consequently, both elected candidates are expected to abandon the ‘social bargaining’ line promoted by former President Kim Myung-hwan and further strengthen the fight.

Former President Kim led the tripartite dialogue to overcome the coronavirus infection crisis (Corona 19), but resigned because he did not obtain congressional approval in July.

Both voters are also faced with the task of resolving the KCTU’s internal conflict. Both camps were warned several times for cheating during the campaign. In some affiliated organizations, systematic misconduct on the part of mobilizing members was discovered. Consequently, union members who do not support both candidates are questioning the fairness of this election.