Posted on 05/13/2005 10:25:21 PM PDT by Libloather
Koreans protest possible job cuts at U.S. bases
By T.D. Flack and Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, May 14, 2005
T.D. Flack / S&S
South Koreans riot police watch South Koreans who work on U.S. military bases in the Seoul area stage a protest Thursday near Yongsan Garrison.
Seth Robson / S&S
South Korean base workers protest near Uijongbu train station on Thursday.
T.D. Flack / S&S
South Koreans who work on U.S. military bases gather near Yongsan Garrison to protest U.S. Forces Korea's announcement that it might cut up to 1,000 jobs.
T.D. Flack / S&S
Two South Korean men who work on U.S. military bases in the Seoul area gather with hundreds of co-workers Thursday for a near Yongsan Garrison.
T.D. Flack / S&S
Protesters near Yongsan Garrison.
SEOUL — Fifty-year-old Jung Bong-suk sat outside the South Korean War Memorial on Thursday afternoon, protesting his employer: U.S. Forces Korea.
He wasn’t alone. Thousands of South Korean employees who work on U.S. bases gathered across the peninsula Thursday to protest an early-April USFK announcement that it might cut up to 1,000 jobs because South Korea cut the amount of money it pays the United States to base its troops on the peninsula.
In late April, U.S. and South Korean officials initialed a two-year agreement that requires the South Koreans to pay 680.4 billion won (about $680 million) annually, an 8.9 percent drop from last year’s 746.9 billion won payment.
In response, nearly 90 percent of the 13,000-member Korean Employees Union voted last week to stage Thursday’s protest and another on June 3, when employees from across the country will gather in Seoul. Union leaders also are working with South Korea’s government on a possible strike.
“I have a family to feed, my two sons are going to high school,” Jung said Thursday. “If the full strike is the only way to keep me on the job, I will definitely join.”
More than 600 workers gathered outside Yongsan and another 200 outside Uijongbu train station, near Camp Falling Water, which USFK recently announced it will close later this year.
Union officials said they would have final totals Friday but as of late Thursday afternoon, they estimated almost 3,000 workers gathered to protest across South Korea.
Kang In-shik, Korean Employees Union president, spoke to the crowd near Yongsan, angrily criticizing South Korea and USFK for any possible job cuts.
Kang said the employees know some jobs might be cut as U.S. forces downsize in South Korea but that the sudden announcement in April “without prior notice to us is a terrible one-sided agreement we can’t accept.”
Chi Hyon-taek, president of the Seoul-area union chapter, said he feels the South Korean workers are paying the price for faulty U.S.-South Korean negotiations.
“The negotiation process is flawed because it didn’t take into consideration the people who would lose their jobs,” he said through a union translator.
Chi stressed the demonstration would remain peaceful, a goal he communicated to his chapter’s members through a letter last week.
“This is a democratic way to express our opinions,” he said.
Uijongbu-area union president Kang Hyong-to said South Korean employees in Area I are concerned about proposed job cuts.
“Our employees are serious about their jobs,” he said. “They don’t want to lose them.”
Both the U.S. and South Korean governments are to blame for the threat to base workers’ jobs, said Kang, who has worked as a painter at Camp Falling Water for 18 years.
Another protester, An Tok-hwan, a firefighter based at Camp Falling Water, said that at age 50, he thinks his job is at risk and fears he will find nothing on the local economy.
“You have to be young to get a job with the South Korean fire department,” he said.
USFK officials contacted late Thursday said it would be inappropriate to comment on the protests.
Show me the money and security - babee!
Holly Crap, half the Koreans riot to get our troops out of their country, and the other half riot to keep them in.
I sympathize with them.....But, they are going to lose a lot more jobs when the protesters get their way and chase the Americans Home.....!
It is easier to demonstrate in front of U.S. military base than in front of Presidential Residence.
The bulk of blame also goes to President Kae-gu-ri(frog), aka Roh Moo-hyun, who created a row with U.S. over how much to pay for U.S. troops in S. Korea. They end up settling for reduced package, which resulted in cutback of S. Korean civilian employees.
Perhaps we SHOULD pull out, and set up the full employment of the South Koreans fighting the North Koreans...
It's interesting to see how the folks that hate us, use us.
Semper Fi
OMG this schezonpihic here one part of South Korea want US security other don't
Isn't it interesting that those who are protesting a reduced US pullout are working people, and the crowd that is always protesting to get the US out are "students." They sure have a great life if they don't have to attend classes or study for tests.
I worked communications in the command center bunker at Yongsan for a year. An interesting education.
I thought the American military was there to help protect the South from attack from the Crazy in North Korea, not to help some union member get his kids through high school.
Ingrates.
Bring our troops home and let South Korea come to grips with their own defence.
The protesters should worry about China as well as the North. Also may think more of kissing Americas backside a little more and a little less protesting.
But it's time...way past time...to move our people down the peninsula or out of the country all together.
Fully agree. The protesters should be conscripted in ROK army, for the beginning.
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