Targeting a Hyundai subcontractor, 180 Vietnamese migrant workers building a wharf in Inchon, South Korea, launched one brief strike in July, 2010, and another last January.
Now, ten strike leaders are on trial, charged with violence and “mob assault with a deadly weapon.” At a hearing on May 26, prosecutors called for up to three years in prison, although the defendants could be deported, reports connect.bwint.org. Working 12 hours every day at the $3.97 hourly minimum wage rate, strikers were protesting night work and having to pay a new $6.87 daily charge for two meals.
Constitutional protection of labor rights and prohibitions against discrimination exclude migrant workers. The trial continues on June 20.
A petition on behalf of strike leaders may be signed here.
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