Kim Jung-kwan, South Korea's Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, sat down with the head of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) on Wednesday for the first official meeting between the two posts in 20 years. Kim proposed that "unnecessary conflicts should be put on a truce for the time being, given that our economy faces an enormous crisis." FKTU Chairman Kim Dong-myung presented seven policy tasks, arguing that labor must not be excluded from overall industrial policy.
The meeting was arranged at the FKTU's request. The last official meeting between a trade minister and an FKTU chairman was in 2006, when Chung Sye-kyun served as Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy. Minister Kim is also scheduled to meet Yang Kyung-soo, chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), on April 3.
"The prolonged war in the Middle East has placed our economy and industry as a whole in an enormous crisis," Minister Kim said. "To overcome this extraordinary period, labor and management should focus their capabilities on overcoming the crisis, and unnecessary conflicts in the workplace should be put on a truce for the time being."
Kim also asked the FKTU to join the transition toward artificial intelligence. "Industrial innovation through AI is not a choice but a matter of survival," Kim stressed. "I ask for your cooperation so that workplaces can survive by responding nimbly to the AI transition."
In response to the minister's appeal, the FKTU submitted seven policy tasks, including harmonizing the spread of AI adoption with labor protections, safeguarding the employment ecosystem amid the auto parts sector's shift to future mobility, and establishing countermeasures for employment crises arising from chemical industry policy changes. Chairman Kim said, "It is true that the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has lacked communication with the labor community given the nature of its work." He added, "The government's industrial policies must lead to new jobs, and job-response policies must accompany the industrial restructuring." He also pointed out that the government's industrial policies have been driven with a focus on businesses, failing to adequately reflect workers' employment and rights.
Minister Kim responded, "Manufacturing employment has been declining recently, and demand for overseas investment including in the United States has been rising, making the domestic job situation difficult." He emphasized, "Since the fundamental solution for job creation and corporate growth is the expansion of corporate investment in local regions, we will do our best to prepare groundbreaking regional investment incentives to promote domestic investment and create quality jobs in local areas."
He further proposed, "If constructive dialogue on expanding labor flexibility and stability takes place with trust and cooperation between labor and management, it will greatly help create quality jobs." Kim added, "I hope that starting from today, Chairman Kim and I can establish a hotline and discuss various measures at any time to restore a labor-management relationship based on mutual benefit and trust."
