On May Day, workers rally for better labour conditions

By HYUNG-JIN KIM, SEOUL, South Korea, May 1: Workers and activists around the world marked May Day on Monday with rallies calling for higher salaries, reduced working hours and other better working conditions.

In France, unions plan massive demonstrations to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s recent move to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. Organizers see the pension reform as a threat to hard-fought worker rights and France’s social safety net.

The pension bill unleashed France’s biggest protests in years, and the May 1 rallies are expected to be among the largest yet.

May Day, which falls on May 1, is observed in many countries as a day to celebrate workers’ rights with rallies, marches and other events. This year’s events had bigger turnouts than in previous years, as COVID-19 restrictions were drastically loosened and opposition centred on how governments’ economic plans will affect workers.

As in previous years, police in Turkey prevented a group of demonstrators from reaching Istanbul’s main square, Taksim, and detained around a dozen protesters, the independent television station Sozcu reported. Journalists trying to film demonstrators being forcibly moved into police vans were also pushed back or detained.

The square has symbolic importance for Turkey’s trade unions after unknown gunmen opened fire on people celebrating May Day at Taksim in 1977, causing a stampede. Dozens were killed.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has declared Taksim off-limits to demonstrations, leading to frequent clashes between police and protesters trying to reach the square.

Meanwhile, small groups were allowed to enter Taksim to lay wreaths at a monument there.

In South Korea, tens of thousands of people attended various rallies in its biggest May Day gatherings since the pandemic began in early 2020. The two main rallies in the capital, Seoul, were expected to draw about 30,000 people each, according to organizers.

“The price of everything has increased except for our wages. Increase our minimum wages!” an activist at a Seoul rally shouted at the podium. “Reduce our working hours!”

A crowd of people packing Seoul’s downtown Gwanghwamun neighbourhood held anti-government placards, sang songs and listened to speeches by union leaders. They later marched through the streets. Seoul police mobilized thousands of officers to maintain order.

Rally participants in South Korea accused the conservative government of President Yoon Suk Yeol of clamping down on some unions in the name of reforming alleged irregularities. Yoon’s government has been calling for labour reform, demanding more transparent accounting records of labour unions and an end to alleged illegal practices by some union members and workers in the construction sector such as pressing firms to hire union members or coercing kickback-like payments from them.

In Tokyo, thousands of labour union members, opposition lawmakers and academics gathered at Yoyogi Park, demanding wage increases to offset the impact of rising costs as their lives are still recovering from the damages of the pandemic.

Union leaders said government measures for salary increases are insufficient and falling behind with rising prices. They criticized Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s plan to double the defence budget, which requires tax increases in coming years, and said the money should be spent on welfare, social security and improving people’s daily lives.

“Let’s keep fighting as we workers unite and seek peace and democracy in Japan,” said Yoshinori Yabuki, head of Tokyo Regional Council of Trade Unions, one of the organizers for the event.

Others chanted “Gambaro! (Let’s do our best)” before they took to the street for a march.

Kishida attended a Saturday event at a Tokyo park that drew thousands of workers, politicians and representatives from major unions.

“I am taking part today because I want to build on the momentum toward higher wages. The most important goal in my ‘new capitalism’ policy is higher wages,” Kishida told the crowd.

In Indonesia, rally-goers demanded the government repeal a job creation law they argue would benefit businesses at the expense of workers and the environment.

“Job Creation Law must be repealed for the sake of the improvement of working conditions,” said protester Sri Ajeng at one rally. “It’s only oriented to benefit employers, not workers.”

Protests in Germany kicked off with a “Take Back the Night” rally organized by feminist and queer groups on the eve of May Day to protest against violence directed at women and LGBTI people. Several thousand people took part in the march, which was largely peaceful despite occasional clashes between participants and police. Numerous further rallies by labour unions and left-wing groups are planned in Germany on Monday.

AP