Text Fwd: 1/29 SF Stop KORUS March and Rally-Another NAFTA Type Agreement With Korea

* Text fwd by Steve Zeltzer on Jan. 28, 2011

1/29 SF Stop KORUS March and Rally-Another NAFTA Type Agreement With Korea

From Congresswomen's Pelosi's Home To The Korean Consulate-Stop This Anti-People Trade Deal!
Protest the Korean-US KORUS Free Trade Agreement
Saturday Jan 29, 2011 11:00 AM 2740 Broadway St Assemble
with March To 3500 Clay St. /Laurel St. Korean Consulate
San Francisco

Although Obama promised he would not push another NAFTA
type agreement with South Korea, the recently negotiated
agreement does nothing to defend labor rights in either
Korea or the US. It will allow further outsourcing and more
temporary and part time workers in Korea and the US through
the deregulation of the labor market. In Korea today 50% of
the workers have now been forced into the temporary workforce.
It will also destroy the economic lives of tens of thousands of Korean farmers.
Today in Korea, dozens of trade unionists are also in jail
for labor activity including striking.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_opinion/460093.html
Public workers are also not allowed to unionize and the Teachers Korean Union
KTU was raided by the police for lobbying against legislation that would
hurt education.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/06/117_67120.html
At the same time this agreement will force privatization of the
Korean national healthcare system in part by forcing high drug
prices on the Korean healthcare system. This is why Pfizer and other big
Pharma multi-nationals have fully backed this agreement along
with other multi-national food and auto companies who will benefit.
We are calling on Congresswomen Pelosi to vote NO on this
agreement. She voted yes on NAFTA and that agreement
has harmed the people of Mexico and the US lowering wages
and destroying communities and jobs. We can't afford more
deregulation, privatization and union busting from KORUS.
http://www.fairtrademinnesota.org/Summary%20of%20Korea%20FTA%20Supplemental%20deal.pdf

This event has been sponsored by California Fair Trade Coalition, United Public Workers For
Action http://www.upwa.info , The No On KORUS Coalition, San Francisco Peace and Freedom Party
For information phone (415)282-1908 or (415)987-4870

San Francisco Labor Council Resolution Opposing Korea-US Free Trade Agreement

1/24/2011

Resolution Opposing the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement
http://sflaborcouncil.org/#sub-fragment-3

Whereas, the proposed KOREA US KORUS Free Trade Agreement will be coming before Congress early this year and,

Whereas, this agreement is modeled on the NAFTA agreement that has led to the loss of jobs for millions of US workers and Mexican workers, privatization, deregulation and repression of unions in Mexico and,

Whereas, this KORUS agreement will also push privatization and deregulation of the US and Korean economy and,

Whereas, dozens of members of the Korean Teachers Union KTU have been jailed for lobbying against legislation in Korea which is illegal under the law and,

Whereas, Korean public workers do not have the right to bargain and strike which are basic labor rights and,

Whereas, as a result of labor deregulation of the Korean economy today nearly 50% of Korean workers are part time and temporary and,

Whereas, the KORUS agreement will also restructure the Korean National Healthcare System resulting in a privatized healthcare system in part by forcing Korean hospitals to purchase high priced medicines from Pfizer and other multi-national Pharma companies that also fight unionization and,

Whereas, there is no serious ability for trade unionists and labor to protect their rights to organize and for democratic union rights within the KORUS agreement and,

Whereas the KORUS agreement is being pushed by major multi-national corporations who have used these Free Trade Agreements FTA to eliminate unions, destroy health and safety protections and pit workers of the US against workers in other countries and,

Whereas, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions KCTU, all Farmers organizations, civil and human rights organizations in Korea are opposing this agreement as well as the AFL-CIO and the KCTU and other civic organizations have a delegation visiting Washington D.C. this week to urge opposition to this agreement,

Therefore be it Resolved the San Francisco Labor Council calls on Congresswomen Nancy Pelosi and Jackie Speier and US Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer representing San Francisco to publicly oppose this agreement and,

Be it Further Resolved this Council will support and participate in a march to the Korean Consulate at 3500 Clay/Laurel in San Francisco on Saturday January 29 11:00 AM and,

Be it Further Resolved this Council supports a Labor Community Educational conference on “KORUS, Another NAFTA?” on Sunday February 27, 2011 at the University of San
Francisco from 9:00 AM To 5:00 PM sponsored by the California Fair Trade Coalition, UPWA and other organizations and,

Be it Finally Resolved that this Council will send letters to all Congressional and Senate representatives asking them to oppose this KORUS agreement and ask for their concurrence with this action by all affiliated bodies including the California AFL-CIO.

Submitted by Tom Lacey, OPEIU 3, and adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council on January 24, 2011.
Respectfully, Tim Paulson Executive Director
OPEIU3 AFL-CIO 11

Korean Teachers Union KTU
http://english.eduhope.net/
President-elect Lee Myoung-bak's policy proposals threaten education

1. President-elect Lee Myoung-bak has presented his education policies to the media before the National Assembly convenes. Clearly, he is already attempting to direct policy, when the president's office is supposed to follow the direction of the people and their lawmakers. With these policy proposals, he obviously wants to turn the education system into one of competing hagwons, where education operates as a "free market." He intends to erase the one advantage of the CSAT, which is that it allows relatively equal opportunity of access to top universities. High schools are to be ranked by "student performance" levels, and yet more specialist high schools are to be opened.

2. Lee wants students to compete for selection to schools throughout their schooling years, from elementary schools through to universities. At present, students are ranked by schools themselves, and schools are not compared. Lee wants to allow universities to implement their own "ranking criteria" for admissions, such that unversities may soon be examining not only students' elementary and middle school assessments, but the "rank" of the elementary and middle schools that they attended as well!

When universities are given complete freedom in admissions policies, not only will high schools be ranked, but middle and elementary schools will be ranked as well. Soon every school in the country will be in competition. This is not the purpose of an education system.

3. Superintendents plan to implement a national standardized test for middle school students. Soon, education will consist of testing and nothing else. Averages are to be compared, in order to encourage competition among provinces. It is policies like this that Lee supports, and soon superintendents will do anything, even encourage private education, in order to improve these test scores and get themselves re-elected.

4. About the one area that most demands attention from the government, Lee has nothing to say: outside the Seoul-Gyeonggi area, provinces collect 20% less per capita for use in education. Provincial Offices of Education are six trillion won in debt. Lee has refused to address the underfunding of education in the provinces.

5. For Lee, education (and everything else) is business. His plans focus on the appearance of quick results, and they are not up for discussion with stakeholders. If he is allowed to make the radical ideological changes to education that he seeks, Lee will destroy education in Korea. The KTU will not allow this to happen.

english.eduhope.net

KTU submits complaint to ILO

The Korean Teachers Union submitted a complaint to the International Labour Organization this week, charging the government with failing to consult with teacher organizations before implementing important labor reforms, and with attempting to restrain the lawful activities of teacher unions.

The ILO will ask the government to respond to the KTU's complaint in June.

South Korea has not ratified ILO Convention 87, on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise, or ILO Convention 98, on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining.