1960년대 한국노총의 분열·갈등과 민주노조 운동을 향한 변화상

The Conflicts in the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and Changes towards the Democratic Trade Union Movement in 1960s

The League of Korean Trade Unions (Hanguk Noryeon) led by Kim Mal-ryoung was not only group that intended to organize another trade union, with rejecting the legitimacy of new Federation of Korean Trade Unions (Hanguk Nochong) in its early period. Former executives who had been in old FKTU (Daehan Nochong) organized the Association of Labor Fellows (No U Hoe) to make the trade union which defied new FKTU. Activities in League of Korean Trade Unions became weakened increasingly due to the article which prohibited on establishing plural trade unions in a company and an industry from revised Labor Relations Act in April, 1963. Association of Labor Fellows which appeared in the second half year of 1963 expected itself to be authorized as a trade union by revised Labor Relations Act. However, Association of Labor Fellows receded gradually into the background as a revised bill for the Labor Relations Act submitted by Samminhoe was abrogated, not being presented in the National Assembly plenary session. Meanwhile, Lee Gyu-cheol’s leadership confronted internal resistance. For examples, Kim Jeong-won tried to organize Democratic labor party. Ji Yeon-il who was the chairperson in National Metal Workers Union declared to withdraw from FKTU. This chain of events revealed that the organization was not stable in its beginning period. However, instability of the organization could be overcome due to government power. The government power authorized FKTU to be solely legal status amongst unions. FKTU more and more accommodated to the political regime in the relations with the government. There occurred much splits and conflicts in FKTU during its middle and later period. FKTU became government-controlled organization because ‘invisible hand’ of ruling party worked on the hidden side of FKTU’s fractional quarrels as it did in Syngman Rhee’s regime. However, it is worthy of note that there came to stand out some groups, which adhered to their independence from the political power and the capitalists in inside cracks, tried to lead the trade unions democratically. We can see a few examples that there increased the groups that were against toeing government line; Kim Mal-ryoung was elected as a chairperson of Associated unions in October, 1966. Also he drummed up quite a bit when he ran for the chairperson of FKTU in October, 1971. Also some trade unions which tried to manage the organization began to appear in the subordinate unit of FKTU, there could not be a quite day on account of fractional strives in the central organization or industrial unions. The branch of Korea Shipbuilding and Engineering Cooperation was good example. Meanwhile, supporting labor movement from church organizations in later 1960s showed another possibility for trade union movement.