Members of the South Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) shout slogans and hold up banners reading ‘Let’s fight for the basic rights of the Workers’ at a rally against the government’s labor policy in Seoul, South Korea, 10 March 2026. File. Photo by JEON HEON-KYUN / EPA
April 10 (Asia Today) — More than 1,000 subcontractor unions have requested collective bargaining with primary contractors in the first month since South Korea’s revised labor law took effect, though relatively few negotiations have begun.
According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, 1,011 subcontractor unions representing 145,860 workers filed bargaining requests with 372 primary companies as of Wednesday.
In the private sector, 616 unions sought talks with 216 companies, while 395 unions in the public sector filed requests with 156 organizations.
Despite the surge in requests, only 33 companies – about 8.9% – have formally announced the start of negotiations, and just 19 completed the process confirming bargaining parties. Handong Global University is the only case so far where formal talks have begun, holding an initial meeting with a subcontractor union Wednesday.
Officials said the process remains in an early stage, as companies and unions work through procedures such as determining employer status and separating bargaining units.
A total of 170 complaints were filed with the labor commission over companies failing to publicly acknowledge bargaining requests. Of those, 110 were withdrawn and 54 remain under review. In six completed cases, authorities recognized the primary contractor as the employer.
Applications to divide bargaining units have also increased, with 117 filed so far. Thirteen were approved and six rejected. Cases involving Korea Electric Power Corp. and major bank call centers were approved by job function, while other cases were split by union affiliation.
The ministry said the rulings show bargaining structures are not being fragmented indefinitely, countering concerns from businesses.
The government described the current phase as part of establishing a new bargaining framework between contractors and subcontractors.
However, business groups warned the law could increase the burden of negotiating with multiple unions and potentially extend into management decisions. Labor groups, meanwhile, criticized delays by companies in initiating the process.
Even within labor circles, there has been a cautious approach as both sides monitor early rulings and precedents.
Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon said the revised law is intended to institutionalize dialogue between contractors and subcontractors.
“Legal procedures such as bargaining requests and unit separation are part of building a stable framework for dialogue,” he said, adding that the government will continue to support the law’s implementation.
Caracas, April 9, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez announced a series of upcoming reforms concerning Venezuela’s labor, tax, and pension frameworks during a press conference on Wednesday, April 8.
Addressing her cabinet at Miraflores Presidential Palace, Rodríguez unveiled the creation of a commission made up of representatives from the state, business sector, active workers, and pensioners to “review labor conditions, address precariousness, and strengthen the social security system.”
Rodríguez acknowledged deficiencies in areas such as working hours, vacation benefits, and pensions, arguing that the present social security system is not sustainable due to insufficient contributions from active workers and the private sector.
The acting president disclosed an upcoming increase to workers’ incomes on May 1, but did not specify if it would come in the form of an adjusted minimum wage or non-wage bonuses. Rodríguez warned that salary adjustments must be “responsible” so that they do not trigger inflation.
Venezuelan authorities have discussed the prospect of reforming the 2012 Labor Law for several months, installing several dialogue commissions and public debates.
The existing labor law, approved by former President Hugo Chávez, prohibits unfair dismissal and outsourcing, enshrines the world’s third-longest maternity leave, guarantees the right to work for both women and people with disabilities, and extends retirement pensions to all workers, including full-time mothers and the self-employed. However, trade unions have pointed out that state institutions and the Labor Ministry have reduced their enforcement of the law in recent years.
Rodríguez’s public broadcast came hours before workers and unions staged a mobilization in Caracas demanding higher wages, improved working conditions, and the repeal of statutes that suspended several collective bargaining rights. In recent protests, workers have called for an end to the government’s bonus-based wage policy and the restoration of collective bargaining agreements.
Venezuela’s minimum wage has remained unchanged since March 2022 at 130 bolívares per month—equivalent at the time to around US $30 but presently worth approximately $0.27 at the official exchange rate.
With the economy heavily constrained by US sanctions, the Venezuelan government relied on non-wage bonuses—paid in bolívares but pegged at a fixed US dollar amount. A recent increase took the so-called Economic War Bonus, paid to public sector employees, to $150 a month. Coupled to a $40 food bonus, it brought the floor income to $190.
Public sector retirees and pensioners receive $130 and $60 Economic War bonuses, and do not access the food bonus.
For their part, business sector representatives have demanded changes to the labor law that reduce costs for employers before any adjustment to the minimum wage. Amid ongoing discussions with the International Labour Organization (ILO), private sector organizations proposed modifying Article 122 of the Labor Law, which establishes that severance payments are calculated based on the last salary earned by the worker.
Tax reform and state asset review
Rodríguez also announced the immediate convening of a National Economic Council tasked with designing a more “efficient” tax model aimed at making Venezuela “more competitive.”
“I hope that this council can produce a new tax model that can generate consensus among the different economic sectors in the country,” the Venezuelan leader stressed.
She further enacted the Law on Streamlining and Optimization of Administrative Procedures, previously approved by the National Assembly, which seeks to modernize public administration by reducing bureaucracy and incorporating digital tools. According to Rodríguez, the law grants the executive authority to eliminate procedures, shorten timelines, and improve coordination between institutions.
In addition, she ordered the creation of a mixed commission to evaluate which state-owned assets have “strategic” importance, potentially opening some to private investment. However, she clarified that the hydrocarbons sector will remain under state control. The Cisneros group, one of Venezuela’s largest conglomerates, recently announced plans to raise funds ahead of an “expected wave of privatizations.”
The Venezuelan acting administration’s wholesale reform plans follow a recent pro-business overhaul of the Hydrocarbon Law in late January. The South American country’s National Assembly is likewise close to approving a new Mining Law with the goal of attracting foreign investment for extractive activities.
On Wednesday, Rodríguez additionally called for reforms to the country’s housing laws, claiming that there are half a million “frozen” properties presently that could be incorporated into the real estate market.
The acting president’s final announcement was a nationwide “pilgrimage” scheduled from April 19, Venezuela’s Independence Day, to May 1 to demand the lifting of US unilateral coercive measures against the Caribbean nation. While the Trump administration has issued selective and restrictive licenses to favor the participation of Western companies in the Venezuelan oil and mining sectors, wide-reaching sanctions remain in place.
Illustration generated using ChatGPT. Image by Asia Today
April 7 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s Labor Ministry launched a joint inspection Tuesday after a foreign worker was seriously injured at a manufacturing plant in Hwaseong, where a high-pressure air gun was allegedly used, causing internal organ damage.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor said it began a combined labor and occupational safety inspection of the facility following media reports of the incident.
Authorities plan to examine whether the worker was subjected to assault or workplace harassment, as well as possible violations of labor laws, including unpaid wages. The probe will also review compliance with safety regulations under the Industrial Safety and Health Act.
Officials said they will investigate whether the company attempted to conceal the workplace injury or failed to implement required safety measures.
If serious violations are confirmed – including abuse, harassment or major industrial safety breaches – the ministry said it will pursue strict measures such as revoking or restricting employment permits and seeking criminal prosecution.
The victim filed for workers’ compensation benefits Tuesday with the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service, and the ministry said it will ensure the claim is processed promptly.
Separately, the ministry has been conducting broader inspections this month targeting workplaces employing large numbers of foreign workers. The inspections focus on sites suspected of labor violations, including those with frequent worker turnover, prior complaints, or records of serious accidents.
As part of the inspections, authorities are conducting surveys and interviews with foreign workers to assess workplace conditions, including potential abuse or harassment.
Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon said all workers, regardless of nationality or immigration status, are entitled to safety and dignity.
“We sincerely apologize to the injured worker and colleagues who witnessed the incident,” Kim said. “We will thoroughly investigate the case and take strict action against any violations of the law.”
1 of 2 | Yang Kyung-soo, leader of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, speaks during a rally in front of the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae to express their objection to the US-Israel war with Iran and South Korea’s dispatch of troops to the conflict, in Seoul, South Korea, 25 March 2026. File. Photo by YONHAP / EPA
April 3 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s largest labor group on Thursday called on the government to adopt a more worker-centered approach in shaping industrial and trade policies, emphasizing job security amid economic and technological changes.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions made the request during a meeting with Industry Minister Kim Jeong-kwan at its headquarters in central Seoul.
The group said employment stability must be a key consideration in industrial policymaking and trade negotiations, particularly as industries undergo restructuring driven by artificial intelligence and face overlapping challenges from climate change, global trade tensions and economic uncertainty.
The meeting was organized to raise the need for labor-focused policy and to establish a framework for ongoing communication and cooperation with the government.
Union officials, including Chairman Yang Kyung-soo, Vice Chairman Jeon Ho-il and other senior staff, attended the session, along with ministry officials responsible for industrial and manufacturing policy.
Yang said industrial and trade policies are directly tied to workers’ livelihoods and warned that policies focused primarily on corporate competitiveness could shift economic burdens onto labor.
“Government agencies must rethink their view of labor,” he said. “Labor is not a cost but the foundation that sustains industry.”
He added that industrial transitions should not come at the expense of workers and called for what he described as a “just transition” that protects jobs and working conditions.
The union said it would continue engaging with the government to push for broader changes aimed at placing workers at the center of economic policy decisions.
PHOENIX — Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman went into the offseason expecting outfielder Kyle Tucker to sign elsewhere.
Sure, Friedman was confident in what the Dodgers could provide on and off the field to the 29-year-old four-time All-Star. And Tucker was a rare hitter who could actually elevate an already star-powered Dodgers lineup. But with the team unwilling to offer a super long-term deal, their chances at landing the best free-agent hitter available this past offseason felt “incredibly low.”
“I can’t remember a time where a player has taken a shorter-term, higher-AAV deal when they’ve had an actual long-term contract on the table,” Friedman said Wednesday.
The Dodgers, however, had already pulled off a bigger surprise when closer Edwin Díaz chose them over returning to the Mets this past December.
The team’s pitch, which included a conversation with the Dodgers’ director of family programs Patricia Romero, discussions about preparation and player resources, and a championship track record, helped land both top-tier free agents.
Of course it didn’t hurt that though Tucker’s contract was only four years, it was worth $240 million. Taking deferrals into account, the net-present day value set an MLB record at about $57 million per year.
The Dodgers’ aggressive offseason, coming off consecutive World Series titles, once again makes them the favorite entering the 2026 season.
They wrap up their Cactus League schedule this week, as World Baseball Classic participants trickle back into camp, and baseball operations leadership make final opening day roster decisions.
Before Friedman headed back to Los Angeles, he spoke with The Times on a range of topics. Here’s part of that conversion, edited for length and clarity.
Q: When it comes to the WBC, there’s variance on how supportive teams are. You have Shohei Ohtani participating as a position player, Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitching after an extra-short offseason, Kiké Hernández supporting Puerto Rico in person while rehabbing. How have you landed in being highly flexible?
Friedman: Obviously everything is case by case. But in a vacuum, we are incredibly supportive of the World Baseball Classic and what it does for our game worldwide. We saw it in ‘23, we saw it this past year, with just how important this is to the players, the staff, the fans — and just how exciting it is for baseball.
So that part’s easy. Now you layer on our situation, us trying to win a World Series. For position players, it’s easier to justify. For pitchers, it’s way harder. Throwing at that intensity in March is really, really challenging. And so we feel like our role is to work with each of our players and have conversations and share our thoughts, listen to their thoughts, and then answers kind of fall out of that.
Q: It’s such a cliche to say you can never have too much pitching, but with this group, are you close?
Friedman: I’ve learned my lesson to never say that we have enough pitching. But I do feel like we are breaking camp with the most talented one through 20 arms — which gets at, obviously, who we’ll break with, and then depth behind it — that we’ve ever had.
Q: Between Díaz, who’s part of that equation, and Tucker, you signed two players this offseason who you didn’t necessarily expect to land. What does that say about this organization and what you’ve done the last few years?
Friedman: Our biggest, most overarching goal is to be a destination spot, where our own players don’t want to leave, where players on other teams are looking longingly, because we feel like championships fall out of that. By having the right environment, having the right culture, that helps your star players want to stay, it helps in the recruitment of others. So we’re way better at it today than we were five years ago. But it’s like a living organism that we have to continue to foster and nurture and develop. And we hope we’re way better at it five years from now.
Q: On that note, the Dodgers are very much caught in the middle of CBA posturing with the current agreement expiring this year. You hear a lot of players saying the Dodgers are doing it the right way and other teams could be doing something similar. On the other hand, the league appears to be floating a salary cap, and plenty of fans are accusing the Dodgers of “ruining baseball.” What’s it been like to see those conflicting narratives?
Friedman: Obviously see it, come across it, hear it quite a bit. But we’re just not that focused on it. We’re a really healthy organization, and the partnership we have with our fans is our guiding light. And we’re doing everything we can to put a team out there that our fans really connect with, and that they feel that partnership with all that they pour into us, and don’t really think about it in any other terms.
And so obviously, there’s a lot of narratives that get extrapolated from that. But our sole focus is on ourselves and the partnership we have with our fans and the rest of it to us, it’s kind of just noise.
Q: You guys raised the bar years ago to, “We’re going to be in the postseason every year.” But there were clear frustrations from the fan base when that wasn’t consistently leading to championships. Is it fair to say that this continued push is almost a response to that frustration?
Friedman: Each year we’ve poured everything we have into winning. And in October, you need a really talented roster, and you need some good fortune. And there’s years where we haven’t been as talented as we wanted to be, whether it’s injuries or lack of performance. There’s years we’ve had really bad fortune, there’s years we’ve had good fortune. And a lot of that is the game, and it’s what I both love and hate about it.
I wouldn’t say our mindset is all that different. But obviously, when you’re in a moment in time with an incredibly talented roster, I think the mindset is, ‘Don’t sit back on your heels, be aggressive, and don’t be nonchalant about the opportunity that we have in front of us.’ And so it’s more the idea of pressing an advantage and being aggressive on that front.
Q: I’m sure when you were pursuing Ohtani, you looked into the revenue ramifications of signing him. Has this been about what you expected? Has it exceeded your expectations?
Friedman: Oh, it’s far exceeded. I don’t think the human brain could have comprehended it correctly. It’s been a perfect storm on a lot of levels, and something that has definitely far exceeded our expectations.”
Q: A three-peat seems to be the goal. Is there such a thing as a successful season without winning a championship, or has this team gotten to a point where you really have to win a World Series in order to claim success?
Friedman: Everything for us, all of our energy and focus, is on doing everything we can to win a championship this year. And our first goal is to win the division and be in position to have a bye. Last year, we added to the degree of difficulty [by winning the division but having to play in the wild-card round] in a way that I’d like to avoid this year.
So that’s the first goal. And then obviously that puts you in the best position to accomplish our ultimate goal, which is winning a World Series. So that’s what all of our energy and focus is on.
And, obviously, if we win the World Series this year, it will be a three-peat. But it’s not how my brain processes it. We’ve won back-to-back, and those are in the bank. And now it’s, do everything we can to win this year, and it’s its own unique, disparate year.
A smelter of Korea Zinc. The company is scheduled to hold a high-stakes shareholders’ meeting Tuesday. Photo by Korea Zinc
SEOUL, March 20 (UPI) — Korea Zinc’s incumbent management and its major shareholder, Young Poong, are locked in a fierce showdown ahead of a regular shareholders’ meeting Tuesday.
The world’s largest non-ferrous metal producer said Friday that it posted record sales and profits last year, which led to high dividends and other shareholder-friendly policies.
Citing the strong performance, Korea Zinc has called for the leadership continuity, as the 2026 shareholders’ meeting would select at least five board members out of 15 seats. The term of Chairman Yun B. Choi is also set to expire.
“We believe that our continued efforts to improve corporate governance and expand shareholder returns have laid the foundation to steadily grow our business and operate our organization in a stable manner,” the firm said in a statement.
But, Young Poong argued that proxy advisers and the National Pension Service, another key Korea Zinc shareholder, have effectively supported its position by opposing the reappointment of Choi as an inside director.
According to Young Poong, such decisions suggest that “this is no longer merely a management control dispute, but judgment over potential structural flaws in corporate governance and failures of oversight.”
Since early 2025, Korea Zinc has been fighting to repel an aggressive takeover bid from Young Poong, which has teamed up with the country’s leading private equity firm, MBK Partners.
The battle came to a head at the March 2025 shareholders’ meeting, and another high-stakes clash is looming at this month’s gathering.
Each side reportedly controls roughly 40% of the voting shares, while NPS holds a 5.2% stake.
Meanwhile, the labor union at Korea Zinc expressed strong support for the current board, urging the NPS to immediately reverse its decision.
“We will fight to the end to prevent the dark hand of speculative capital from tainting our sacred workplace at this shareholders’ meeting,” the union said in a statement.
“If our warning is ignored and the company is undermined, we will mobilize all possible means, including a general strike, to wage an all-out struggle,” it said.
Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike (3), president of the WNBA players’ union, said for the first time, player salaries will be tied to a meaningful share of league revenue.
(Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)
The league and players association have not made the terms public yet, but the salary cap will start at $7 million, up from $1.5 million in 2025, and the supermax will start at $1.4 million, up from $249,244 in 2025, a person with knowledge of negotiations not authorized to discuss them publicly told The Times. ESPN was the first to report the figures.
The total salary cap will jump by around 4.64 times the previous amount. The super maximum salary will be elevated by 5.61 times the previous amount. It means the top players will be eligible for larger raises than the league’s middle class.
The average salary will be $600,000, a bump from the previous average of $120,000, and the minimum salary will be more than $300,000, up from $66,079.
“For the first time, player salaries are tied to a truly meaningful share of league revenue, driving exponential growth in the salary cap, increasing average compensation beyond half a million dollars and raising the standard across facilities, staffing and support,” union president Nneka Ogwumike told reporters.
The main sticking point during negotiations was revenue sharing, and that number will be around 20% for the entirety of the multi-year deal. The league had previously offered 15.5%, a source told The Times, and players went down from their 40% ask to around 26% at the end of February, and then reached the agreement around 20% on Wednesday morning. The Athletic first reported the shift in revenue sharing figures.
Players had been negotiating for a percentage of overall revenue without factoring in expenses while the WNBA was seeking sharing tied to net revenue, mirroring the NBA’s structure that deducts expenses before sharing 50% of profits. The players secured a gross revenue deal, which gives them a cut of WNBA revenue without factoring in expenses, a person with knowledge of the deal not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times.
“This deal is going to be transformational, and you’ll see all the details hopefully soon,” WNBPA vice president Breanna Stewart told reporters on Wednesday. “But it’s gonna build and help create a system where everybody is getting exactly what they deserve and more from on the court and off the court aspects.”
As the U.S. wades even deeper into the conflict with Iran, some Democratic and progressive political figures are trying to figure out how to connect the public’s wariness about war with concerns about affordability and the widespread reaction against President Trump’s xenophobic immigration policies.
If you’re looking for a template to do it well, one can be found in the words and actions of a political figure who recently passed away: the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
For while attention after his death has rightfully focused on Jackson’s long involvement with the civil rights movement, the more telling lesson for this moment is how his presidential campaigns connected a concern for addressing domestic disenfranchisement with a resolute stance against U.S. military adventures — a message that built on and echoed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s landmark 1967 speech against the Vietnam War, economic exploitation and racial injustice.
Jackson’s candidacies in 1984 and 1988 emerged at a moment when the social compacts forged by the labor, civil rights and women’s movements of the 20th century were being systematically undone. Deindustrialization was hollowing out working-class communities. Reaganism was consolidating power around tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation and attacks on unions. A new corporate consensus was hardening — one that increasingly shaped both major parties — prioritizing financial elites while disciplining labor and shrinking the public sphere.
Sound familiar?
Jackson refused to accept that such a right-wing and corporate realignment was inevitable. His Rainbow Coalition was far more ambitious than a candidate-centered campaign. It was an attempt to build an organized, multiracial, cross-class political front capable of contesting the direction of the country itself.
The Rainbow brought together constituencies that conventional political wisdom said could not unite — Black voters in the South, industrial workers in the Midwest, family farmers in crisis, Latino and Native organizers, Arab American activists, peace advocates, labor insurgents and progressive whites.
Jackson’s platform did not treat these groups as symbolic additions to a coalition; it linked their material interests. Farmers facing foreclosure were not an afterthought — the farm crisis was up front. Deindustrialized workers were not rhetorical props — trade, jobs and industrial policy were central. Civil rights were braided together with economic justice.
And crucially, Jackson insisted, as King had, that economic populism could not be separated from anti-militarism.
At the height of the Cold War, amid Reagan’s military buildup and interventionist doctrine, Jackson argued that bloated Pentagon budgets were not abstract line items. They were resources diverted from schools, healthcare, housing and jobs. He connected the violence of abandonment at home to the violence of intervention abroad — and his campaign called for redirecting military spending toward human needs and for diplomacy over escalation.
When Jackson thundered that we should “choose the human race over the nuclear race,” this was not a simple turn of phrase. It was integral to the Rainbow’s moral and economic logic. A government that prioritizes war over welfare, weapons over workers, cannot sustain democratic life.
That clarity feels especially salient today, as the United States continues to pursue military interventions and proxy conflicts whose legality and human cost are deeply contested. Once again, defense budgets swell while public goods strain. Once again, dissent against war is treated as disloyalty. Jackson rejected that false choice decades ago. He understood that militarism abroad reinforces inequality and immorality at home.
Jackson’s 1988 campaign captured millions of votes, won primaries and caucuses across the country and forced issues into the Democratic Party that party elites preferred to sideline. He demonstrated that a progressive program grounded in the lived experiences of ordinary people — rural collapse, urban disinvestment, plant closures, racial injustice and war — could assemble a national constituency.
Unfortunately, after Jackson’s last campaign, the Rainbow’s experiment in independent organizational life was folded too tightly into the mainstream Democratic Party. While that seemed a strategy to achieve a broader front, it meant that the progressive anchor was unmoored — and the effort dissolved before it could truly mature.
But the lessons of that era may be more relevant than ever.
Today, we again confront an ever-ascendant rightward turn buttressed by concentrated corporate power and normalized militarism. As in Jackson’s day, some leaders seek to deflect our attention, blaming economic challenges on the proximate “other” — in his era, Black women taking welfare, in our era, immigrants taking jobs — rather than those with power.
Jackson understood that defeating reactionary politics required isolating it — not only morally, but structurally — by assembling a coalition larger than the right’s base and rooted in shared material demands. He understood that hope had to be organized and that peace had to be part of prosperity. His campaigns showed that racial justice, labor rights, rural survival, gender equality and anti-war politics were not competing claims but interlocking ones.
Protest has surged in the United States, particularly after the excesses in Minnesota. But protest alone does not prevent consolidation. Nor do narrow electoral bargains that leave the underlying corporate and military consensus intact.
At a time when both parties remain deeply entangled with corporate and defense interests, remembering the promise of the Rainbow is not nostalgia. It is instruction.
Rishi Awatramani is a postdoctoral scholar in sociology at USC, where Manuel Pastor is a professor of sociology and the director of the Equity Research Institute.
