International Brotherhood Of Teamsters
Office Of Ron Carey
General President
25 Louisiana Ave, N.W.
Washington,DC 20001
(202)624-6800

Janary 12, 1997

President Kim Young Sam
Republic Of Korean
The Blue House
Seoul 110-050
Republic Of Korea

Via fax:82 2 770 02 53

Dear Mr. President;

As the largest union in North America, with 1.4 million members, we strongly oppose your government's unfair treatment of the working men and women of South Korea. We are specifically shocked and disheartened to learn of the very damaging labor legislati on which the South Korean government recently passed in a secret meeting, absent of opposition party members and within only seven minutes.
The International Brotherhood Of Teamsters protests against the adoption of the new unfair labor laws which restrict the rights of workers to organize, allow for the replacement of striking workers, allow for the appointment of temporary or seasonal labor, greatly contributing to the exploitation of workers and the unhealthy instability of the labor market in South Korea. Moreover, this legislation goes as far as to give employers a free hand to dismiss and exploit workers.
Our union has met with and has established especially strong bonds with officials of the democratic trade union movement in Korea. I understand that your prosecutors have summoned forty such labor leaders as a form of harassment signaling a crackdown against strikers and their leaders. The most fundamental trade union right is the right of workers to withhold their labor in a strike. Any retaliation by your government against Korean workers exercising this universal right will be viewed by the Teamsters Union as the most serious of human rights violations and we will respond in the swiftest and strongest means available.
We intend to prevail upon our national trade union center, the AFL-CIO, the ICFTU and the TUAC to immediately organize a mission, composed of trade unon officials from around the world, to Korea to investigate the new anti-worker and anti-union labor laws your government has inflicted upon the Korean people. We will also join with other North American trade union and human rights activists today to demonstrate at the Korean Embassy to add our voices to the millions world-wide who abhor the actions taken by your government.

Sincerely yours,

Ron Carey
General President

RC/ab

cc: John Sweeney, American Federation Of Labor Congress of Industrial organizations
Bill Jordan, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
John Evans, Trade Union Advisory Committee Of the OECD