Labor Minister nominee Kim Moon-soo speaks during a briefing at the presidential office on July 31, 2024. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, July 31 (Korea Bizwire) – The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), the biggest umbrella labor union, on Wednesday denounced the nomination of a former labor rights fighter-turned-conservative politician for the new labor minister as an “anti-labor disaster.”
Kim Moon-soo, once a staunch labor and democratization activist who later became a three-term conservative lawmaker, was nominated earlier in the day to head the labor ministry.
His radical shift from labor activism to the conservative party and subsequent adoption of “right-wing” attitudes earned him stiff resistance from the labor sector.
On his YouTube channel, Kim Moon-soo TV, in 2022, he uploaded a video clip titled, “Bombarding damage suits is the panacea against illegal labor strikes.”
In March last year, he wrote on Facebook: “I was impressed. They have no labor unions. … The average salary is less than (US$29,000),” following a visit to an electronic vehicle firm in his current capacity as the head of the presidential Economic, Social and Labor Council.
In a statement issued after the nomination, the KCTU decried Kim as a person with “a foul perception” of the labor sector, calling his nomination an “anti-labor personnel disaster.”
“Who would believe a pledge to have dialogue from a person who frequently commits anti-labor actions while exploiting his past career?” the union said, urging the Yoon Suk Yeol government to stop attempts to regress the labor system.
It also called on Kim to properly fulfill his duties as labor minister, stressing that the role of the labor ministry as a conflict resolution mediator is more important than ever.
(Yonhap)
