Revival of the economy of ordinary people should start from a raise of the minimum wage.

Women workers spoke out loudly in front of the National Assembly at Yeouido on June 9 in spite of hot weather. A campaign of women’s labor groups was organized to gain the minimum hourly wage of 5,180 won for the year 2010. The Win-Win Women’s Action hosted the campaign and about 100 women workers from Seoul, Incheon, Daejeon, and Daegu gathered with only a wish of the raise of the minimum wage.

 

The campaign began with an opening speech of Ms. NamYoon Insoon, KWAU standing representative. Participants sang a song of the minimum wage with modified lyrics of “twist of love” from time to time during the campaign. Ms. Kwak Jeongsuk, a member of the National Assembly, gave a solidarity speech and said, “At least one member of the committee on the minimum wage should be a minimum wage worker so that the committee will be able to understand minimum wage workers. After Ms. Kwak’s speech, Ms. Jeon Yeongae, a member of the Seoul Branch of the KWTU, shared her situation and said, “I just can’t get rid of my cold. Normally I live on a diet of rice and kimchi (Note: It is a traditional Korean dish made of vegetables with varied seasonings), but I can’t buy kimchi because of too much low minimum wage this year. If I eat kimchi, the cold will go away. The minimum wage should be increased.” Ms. Yu Jeonghui, chapter chairperson of the cleaning service at Inha University belonging to the KWTU Incheon Branch, spoke out and said, “It is very difficult to live with the minimum wage which is not keeping up with inflation. Let’s gain the minimum hourly wage of 5,180 won for the year 2010.”

 

Several comments above were followed by a performance. It alluded to the tug-of-war of the committee on the minimum wage and then gave the impression of the tug-of-war between labor and management over the minimum wage. Its ending was to gain the minimum hourly wage of 5,180 won with the victory of labor. The performance displayed a wish of women workers present at the campaign. The Win-Win Women’s Action said in the declaration, “Economy will be revitalized if all citizens get paid enough to earn their living. The government and management only pay lip service to the revival of the economy of ordinary people. They need to face up squarely to real ways for reviving the economy of ordinary people.” The declaration was recited by Ms. Seol Insuk, vice-chairperson of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) and member of the committee on the minimum wage. She said, “Let’s gain the minimum hourly wage of 5,180 won which is 50% of the average wage of workers across Korea.” The campaign displaying the wish of women workers for a minimum wage increase would continue during June