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.”

The 1st Women Labor Forum: what will we do regarding local and educational autonomy?

The Korean Women's Trade Union (KWTU) and the KWWA organized the 1^st Women’s Labor Forum in the basement education room at 2:00 pm on April 16 in order to discuss our responses to local and educational autonomy in relation with the June nationwide local election.

The forum had two topics: ‘the understanding of local autonomy and regional policy’ by Mr. Ha Seungsu, a steering committee member of “Ieum” (a grassroots autonomy institute) and ‘the project making an education city where children are happy’ by Mr. An Seungmun, an executive committee co-chairperson of the Education Network for Hope. It discussed ‘a role of women workers in the era of local and educational autonomy.’

The local self-government system in Korea has been put into operation since 1991. It has aimed at seeking a way to solve local problems at the regional level with the participation of local citizens and at improving the quality of life for local residents. As the system has been enforced, it has supposed the different roles of the central and local governments. The central government would play a role of preparing a related legal system and providing a budget to local governments. On the other hand, the local government would carry out actual service.

However, the prevailing view seems that the local self-government system for the past 20 years has not performed its function properly according to its purpose and role.

If the local government is focusing on welfare, environment, education, local economy, and women policy closely related to life of local people at the local level, it is in accord with the aim of local autonomy. However, the reality is that many local governments conduct policies which are out of touch with ordinary people’s lives.

What can we do to achieve the fundamental purpose of local autonomy?

The present local government should be fundamentally changed with residents’ participation in the policy making process of the local self government and the compilation of its budget. It can be realized through (1) the change of local politics to abolish the system in which candidates for local elections are nominated by political parties jumping on regionalism, (2) local administration innovation, and (3) the vitalization of local residents’ participation.

Residents’ participation is needed not only for the democratization of the local society but also for improving the real life of local people. It is right for residents to participate in the process of the policy making which is closely related with their real life. Policies irrelevant to the interests of local people will eventually waste the budget and cause the reduction of the budget for welfare of residents. Mr. Ha concluded his presentation by emphasizing the necessity to change the ways of civic movements or voters’ campaign from the passive monitoring and the policy suggestions to more active political participation.

The presentation and discussion of ‘local autonomy’ was followed by that of ‘educational autonomy’ which began with strong criticism over education policy in Korea.

South Korea is the only nation in the world making children sleepless with the educational pressure. Private education expenses for children are over 30 trillion won according to the statistics. However it presumes that private education expenses which do not show up in statistics are a huge amount of money. South Korea ranks first in number of foreign students studying in the United States as a percentage of population. Several trillion won was spent to build English Villages, but they are not fulfilling their rightful function. In the case of Seoul, it is working hard to develop mere displays such as putting all sorts of sculptures and holding events in Gwanghwamun Square and spending several billion won for setting boats afloat on the Hangang (Han River) instead of developing its administration capacity. It does not invest sufficiently in education. The above situation is a result of the absence of educational philosophy. The high cost of education is one of the biggest deterrents to families having children, but the government pretends not to know it. The government is only worried about the decrease of the number of class without realistic measures to count the low fertility.

Policies of free school lunch, free education, free healthcare, etc. for students were carried out early in Europe. However, just free school lunch is at issue in Korea. Therefore, the coming June election for superintendents of education is very important for making the society where children live and study happily under proper education policies.

Mr. An emphasized that in this election the pan-democratic and progressive bloc would have consent and consensus about what philosophy and principles should be applied to school education and what kinds of political and administrative support should be given to it for the hopeful future of individuals, the society, and the nation. When parents know precisely the contents of the investment and demands for education and participate in the decision making, it is possible to bring a change in education policy. After all, voters should not separate politics from life and their active participation is essential in the June local election. If the pan-democratic and progressive bloc suggests right election pledges to make people understand the stream of policies, people are able to ask proper policies. 

Mr. An had met progressive candidates for superintendants of education and members of the education committee before the forum and suggested them right election pledges and policies with topics of ‘what can they do?’ and ‘it is possible if candidates work together.’

His suggested election pledges are free school lunch with environment-friendly products, free healthcare for elementary, middle, and high school students (Its estimated budget is less than one thousandth of the budget for free school lunch), support for exposure programs and free supply of educational materials, special projects for developing students’ abilities required in the 21^st century, strengthening the capacity of teachers, the abolition of the testing system such as uniform tests in elementary, middle, and high school, companies, and the government, and so on. Those pledges would be adopted as election pledges of pan-people’s candidates for superintendants of education on May 7.

Lastly there was a request to him in the question and answer session that a political alternative about working conditions and employment insecurity of trade union members of school accountants belonging to the KWTU would be included in election pledges. Mr. An concluded the forum by saying that he would develop a policy on irregular school workers and examine ways to include it in election pledges.

-    How can the government urge women to have children in the unstable job situation?

- It is very hard to request maternity leave in the unstable job situation.

- Jobs are unstable, but the government policy is more unstable.

The press conference was held by “the Win-Win Women’s Action to save the people’s livelihood and jobs” in front of the National Assembly at Yeouido at 11:00 on March 3 in commemoration of the International Women’s Day. It urged the job security of women with the topic of “unstable jobs”.

Recently the South Korean government brought forward various measures to encourage childbirth such as a so-called ‘purple job’ (a part-time job) aimed at enabling women workers to achieve a balance between work and family. (Note: The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family explains the color purple combines red, a feminine color, and blue, a masculine color, and thus symbolizes gender equality and harmony between work and family.) The government does not pay attention to the reality that a large number of women have fallen into unemployment and poverty, but considers the low birthrate problem as the most serious matter and approaches employment policy geared to promoting childbirth. About 70% of women workers are irregular worker and most of them work for a minimum wage. Maternity leave and childcare leave for them is all just pie in the sky. Therefore it is doubtful they can live on the purple job.  

On the occasion of the International Women’s Day 2010 and with the same spirit of women who marched down the street and demanded women’s voting rights about 100 years ago, we gathered to put forward the women’s requests of the change of the government policy on the job security for the society where women have children and raise them well.

The press conference was begun with a main statement by Jeong Moonja, Chairperson of the Korean Women Workers Association (KWWA). Ms. Jeong said that it was prepared to disclose the illusion of the government policy with the promotion of childbirth toward unstable jobs and threat to the women workers’ right to live, and announce measures really needed for women workers to secure the right to work. Emphasizing job security rather than labor flexibility, she also said that the so-called ‘purple job’ (a part-time job) would not enable women workers to achieve a balance between work and family, and demanded 500,000 new jobs for women. 

Is an administrative intern at the public institution an expert in shredding documents?

As a person directly concerned, a woman nicknamed ‘Poker Face’ looking for a job, made a comment following the statement by the KWWA chairperson. She is 27 years old and became a debtor who had to begin the payment on the student loan after the graduation. She could not prepare for the job market properly due to part-time jobs for making the payment on the loan. Then she worked as an intern for 6 months under ‘the administrative internship at the public institution’ which the government publicized like a measure to tackle the problem of unemployment among young people. When she and other youths joined the administrative internship at the public institutions, they all expected to build their careers for the 6 month contract period. However, they spent 6 months mostly for simply clerical assistance such as copying and shredding documents.

After that, she took several part-time jobs such as an afterschool instructor, but she could not get any stable job. Employers prefer students to graduates for part-time jobs. Therefore employment opportunities for the 27 year old woman are getting scarcer and scarcer. She concluded her comment by saying that it would be good if South Korea became a country providing stable jobs not only to young people but also to women.

Ms. Kim Sujin whose career was interrupted by childbirth, made a comment. Her words touched our heart with such intensity. She has a two year old child. She quitted the teaching job at a private education institute where she had worked for 6 years because she had no one to take care of her child, and became a homemaker. She thought that she would be back to work if the conditions were right for leaving her child in the childcare center, but the reality was tough. With her career in teaching, she tried to get a teaching job, but it was hard to get the job in private education institutes because the teaching job in institutes is a popular job for university students. She wants a job not only because of her desire to work but also because of a need to cover a fair bit of money for childcare. She lowered her job expectations and tried to get a part-time job, but it was also hard. She is upset because people around her ask why she does not have a second child without knowing how hard she is. She studied hard at university and spent a lot of money to graduate, but failed to get a job in her major of study and in the field of her career. The path of the re-entry to the labor market is long and winding. Recently she is keeping an eye on mart cashiers which she looked casually. She is afraid of a new job that she has ever done before, but now wishes any job available.

The press conference asking the government to provide effective measures in dealing with jobs for women, was concluded by our action to shout loudly the following demands below toward the National Assembly.

▲ The government and the company should eradicate unfair dismissal for pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare, and ensure jobs for women.

▲ Ensure maternity leave and childcare leave for women without distinction between regular and irregular works. <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->

▲ The government should enforce a policy enabling both female and male workers to take childcare leave.

▲ The company should improve organizational culture such as the long working hours and the excessive get-together culture, hindering workers to achieve a balance between work and family.

▲ The man is also a main agent of childcare. Be a father who work and raise children together for a balance between work and family.

Happy New Year!

Thank you for your interests and supports so far. In the new year of Tiger, we at the KWWA will speak out our demands loudly like the roars of tigers and take easy and composed attitudes like proud tigers. In 2010, we at the KWWA will work hard for the following activities with our 11 regional organizations: to increase our members; to have meetings with young women in their 20s; to reveal and publicize worsening women's employment situations; to stabilize social economic structures; and to win victories in the coming local election in 2010. May you have meaningful, happy day everyday with us.

Jeong Moon Ja

Chairperson

KWWA

Leaps towards hopeful and bright futures in 2010! Holding 6th NCHM's representative meeting.

On January 10, 2010, the 6th representative meeting of National Cooperative of House Managers (NCHM) was held with its 60 representatives and observers' attendance.  In the meeting, NCHM's 5 year evaluations and tasks were shared and action plans in 2010 were approved based on 2009's activities and 5 year project evaluations. The new action plans include ▲ the stabilization of care jobs; ▲ the social re-recognition of care work and the realization of legal protection of care workers; ▲ the reinforcement of identities of NCHM as an alternative economic structure; and ▲ the searching for communication and solidarity at regional levels. 

There was a section for introducing participants by region and regional performances, presided by the chairperson of the Seoul branch, prior to the representative meeting. The Seoul branch that had danced to the music of 'Superman' won the first prize and the Jeonju branch having showed our resolutions with white headbands around the head got the second place. Initially, only prizes for the first winner were prepared. However, all the regional branches performed very well, so the second winner was awarded, too. Nevertheless, we felt something lacking, because other branches also prepared so much.

After the regional performances, a lecture entitled 'social economy and the NCHM' was delivered by Moon Bo-kyung, a general manager of Korea Foundation for Social Investment. The chairpersons of the KWWA and its regional branches also joined the meeting to offer their congratulations.

On both of the last January 9 and 10, KWWA's 18th regular general meeting was held. The meeting gave a momentum to us for gathering all of our 100 full-time activists from our regional branches, sharing KWWA's activity directions for 2010 and making new resolutions.

On the first day, we at the KWWA had a good time to receive a lecture about a political situation entitled 'the reality of Korean politics and tasks' given by Kim Ho-gi, a professor of the Dept. of Sociology, Yonsei University, in order to have broader perspectives on the society.

He identified our current reality as 'the era of uncertainty.' Although very separate and different seem issues by generation like unemployment amongst those in their 20s, job insecurity, private education costs for their children, and preparation for their golden years in their 30s and 40s, alienation from social changes in their 50s and 60s, he highlighted the great majority of people experience grave uncertainty stemming from their economic difficulties due to the lack of social welfare policies. He also raised his concerns for increases in not only social conflicts but also the crisis over democracy hit by the deepening social polarization.

Under these circumstances, civil NGO's roles are crucial. There have been diverse changes in the Korean NGOs: conservative NGOs represented by the 'New Right' movement have risen and support bases for progressive NGOs has been weakened. In this regime, progressive NGOs have faced difficulties in developing new agendas and gaining supports from people.

He also stressed that the progressive movement should introspect on both of its strong points and demerits to increase its influences in the local election in the coming June and suggested to be concerned for how to communicate with people and what to do with people.

We at the KWWA have been preparing a variety of activities to make the year 2010 the year of beginning to activate projects for our members. In the preparatory process, we had a time to carry out deep discussion on these topics: "How should we fulfill members' project guidelines at regional levels?" and "How should we change the culture of our structures to activate our projects for members?"

We also discussed our various concerns: if our activities were self-content and limited; what we at the KWWA did with our members; How we will explore and increase our membership; and how we should change ourselves. For example, we expressed our opinions like 'More important thing is not a desk theory for increasing our membership, but good and practical communication with the public.'; 'People are not interested in serious and boring topics.'; 'We should adjust our perspectives suitable to the public.'; and 'it is not real and good communication just to upload many articles on our website in this era of two-way communication.' We have decided to approach our public through changing our structures and using various internet cultures in order to activate our activities to increase our membership. For instance, all secretariate of the KWWA joined the Twitter to strive to introduce our activities on our real-time bases and communicate with the public.

In the evening, we had a time of unity and communication by region. We had wonderful and happy moments to dance including belly dance, sing, and change song lyrics.

On the second day, KWWA's 2009 annual report and audit report, and action plan for 2010 were presented.  Activity basis for 2010 was decided as the completion of the alternative social movement ▲ to solidify structure powers to meet women workers' demands and cope with realities; ▲ to demand legal reforms to overcome the polarized labor market; and ▲ to overcome the existing values and the principles of the labor market. For this, were set 8 action directions such as △ to gain financial independence through the 50% increase in the number of regular members and support members; △ to make the women involved main forces of their structures; △ to meet women in their 20s and attempt to organize them; and △ to reveal worsening realities of women employment and to carry out activities to correct women's realities.

January 12, 2010

June 17, 2009, we at the KWWA brought a lawsuit against the Ministry of Public Administration and Security to the Seoul Administrative Court to request the 'cancellation of the decision to stop government's subsidies'. Choa Se-jun, a lawyer belonging to the Lawyers for Democratic Society argued the case for the KWWA that had been selected as a NGO in charge of carrying out its project, but its subsidies were stopped in its second term of 2009.

At that time, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security did not reveal its clear reasons for stopping its subsidies to the KWWA, and rejected disclosing its scores against NGOs as a standard for stopping its subsidies. The ministry just replied that it would reject the release of its confidential information, since that would result in disadvantaging the public. However, only after we at the KWWA brought a lawsuit against the ministry, it revealed that the KWWA had been 'a NGO  joining illegal and violent rallies' as its reason why it stop its subsidies to us. 

In this case, the Division 6 of the Seoul Administrative Court made a decision for the ministry. According to the verdict, "the KWWA took active part in  candlelight demonstrations since 2008 when the KWWA joined the People’s Countermeasure Council Against Mad Cow Disease. Joining violent and illegal rallies and demonstrations itself is applicable to a criminal offense."

On the other hand, on December 10, 2009, the Korea Women's Hot Line having brought a lawsuit against the Ministry of Women received a very different verdict. The 14th Division of the Seoul Administrative Court decided "the rejection of subsidies by the Ministry of Women is illegal since the Korea Women's Hot Line cannot be defined as an illegal violent organization just on the ground that it joined the People’s Countermeasure Council Against Mad Cow Disease. There is no proof that the Korea Women's Hot Line organized and led illegal demonstrations, nor was it an illegal organization since its staff has not been punished or actively participated in illegal demonstrations, either."

We at the KWWA doubt about decisions by the court that made very different verdict within a month. The KWWA and the Korea Women's Hot Line are in the same positions because both of the NGOs did not organize or led any illegal and violent demonstrations, nor were their staff persons punished under the Assembly and Association Act. We cannot understand the verdict that sees joining the mad cow disease related candlelight demonstrations in 2008 itself as 'criminal offenses,' from the factual and legalistic perspectives.

The Korea Women's Hot Line filed its case on September 1, 2009 and received the court's decision on December 10, 2009. However, we at the KWWA had to spend 7 months, a far more time compared to the Hot Line: we filed our case on June 17, 2009 and received the verdict on January 8, 2010. Because the Ministry of Public Administration and Security applied for the resumption of its argument in the morning on November 6 when the court was supposed to reach a verdict, court's decision was postponed. Additionally, the unprecedentedly long process was also very doubtful, since the verdict was reached 7 months later.  

The 14th division of the court reached the verdict for the Korea Women's Hot Line decides "The government's condition for deciding on its subsidies is just needed to accomplish its purposes for granting subsidies regulated by relevant enactments and budgets. What is irrelevant to the purposes for granting subsidies cannot be qualified conditions."

On the other hand, the Division 6 of the court brought into relief, the justification of the rejection of the subsidies by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security. However, "questioning activities and characteristics of subsidies-receiving organization regardless of achieving goals for the grants is a serious violation of  freedom of assembly and association stipulated by the constitution." The Division 6 is against the purpose of the Non-governmental Organizations Aid Act,  "NGOs' self-regulation should be guaranteed."

The verdict against the KWWA stigmatizes as illegal and violent organizations,  1,862 NGOs joining the People’s Countermeasure Council Against Mad Cow Disease, and further denounces the candlelight demonstrations as illegal and violent rallies. What is worse is that the verdict views all of over one million citizens participating the candlelight demonstrations as criminals. We at the KWWA would like decide to appeal to denounce the crucially faulty decision by the Division 6 of the Seoul Administrative Court and correct the verdict.