The new leader of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, the nation’s largest umbrella labor group, hinted at breaking up the strategic alliance with the ruling Grand National Party.

Lee Yong-deuk, 58, who served in the position between 2004 and 2008, was re-elected as the group’s new chairman by winning a majority vote of 53.4 percent in member voting Tuesday.

“We all have to work together and join hands. I will make the FKTU lead the efforts for social reform,” Lee said right after the ballot results were disclosed.

Ahead of the 2007 presidential election, the FKTU, under Lee’s leadership, agreed to policy solidarity with the then main opposition GNP and maintained a moderate stance on the Lee Myung-bak Administration. 

However, their relations started deteriorating last year when the government pushed ahead a legal revision which, among other things, bans the corporate payment of full-time union officials and introduces a multiple unions system.

Pledging to annul policy solidarity with the GNP, Lee also hinted at possible cooperation with the main opposition Democratic Party and other opposition parties.

“Even though the 2007 alliance failed, I will continue to seek cooperation in the coming presidential elections in 2012 and 2017,” he said.

He added that the group could sometimes work together with the second-largest and more radical Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, saying “there would be many things because labor groups are struggling recently.”

Observers said that Lee’s hard-line stance is closely related to the implementation of the multiple unions system in July and next year’s presidential election. He is expected to declare officially the breakup with the GNP as early as February when his term begins.

However it is less likely that the relatively moderate labor group will shift its policy direction dramatically, giving up the vested rights under the current government.

Thanks to solidarity with the GNP, many activists from the FKTU entered politics and other public sector positions. It would be difficult for them to abandon their privileges and switch to fighting mode like the KCTU, observers noted.

During his campaign, Lee, the FKTU’s new chairman, called for a legal revision to allow the corporate payment of full-time union officials, emphasizing the issue should be decided by labor-management discussions.

However, the Ministry of Employment and Labor has reaffirmed that it would never accept the revision proposal.

“The candidates (for the FKTU leadership) are demanding a revision to the labor union law. Regardless of who is elected, there will be no change in government policy,” Minister Bahk Jae-wan told reporters recently.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)