While ‘construction site violence’, which has led to union activities, has recently become an issue nationwide, police have caught a lot of union members who have been violently extorting money and valuables from construction sites in Busan.
The Busan Metropolitan Police Agency announced on the 21st that a total of 87 cases and 376 people were caught through special crackdowns on violent acts at construction sites in the Busan area for 100 days from December 8 of last year until recently.
Photo = Yonhap News
The police arrested three of them and handed them over to the prosecution without detention. In addition, 351 people are being investigated.
In the major cases that were caught, five executives from the Bu, Ul, and Gyeong branches of the Busan-area labor union for the disabled were caught obstructing work by demanding the employment of disabled union members, etc., and extorting 34 million won from the construction company. Two of them were sent to custody.
In addition, five people, including an executive of the Busan Construction Machinery Branch of the construction union, were caught obstructing construction by closing the entrance to the construction site, extorting money and valuables worth 310 million won by forcing them to join the construction union and use the union’s construction equipment.
Looking at the types of cases caught during the special crackdown, 45 cases (52%) of extortion in the name of full-time wages and monthly wages were the most common, followed by 21 cases (24%) of hiring union members and forcing the use of equipment, and obstruction of entry to the construction site. 15 cases (17%) of obstruction of work, such as refusal to work, followed by 6 cases (7%) of other violence, such as assault or injury.
A police official said, “Recognizing that violent acts at construction sites are a serious social issue, we will eradicate illegal acts through thorough investigations, including the instigators and whether there are instructions or conspiracies.” And we plan to pursue and arrest the retaliatory crimes to the end.”
Busan = Reporter Oh Seong-taek [email protected]
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