special issue 1.

Let's stand firm with
the pride of five million women workers




Sang Rim Choi
President of KWTU




On August 29, the Korean Women's Trade Union (KWTU) was launched. The KWTU is open to every working woman no matter what post or work area she inhabits. In many regional areas, women's trade unions were set up from January onwards. However, this is the first time a trade union has been established on a national level. We here explain the need for and aims of the newly-established KWTU, print the interview with the first president, Ms. Sang Rim Choi, and describe the scene at the opening ceremony of the KWTU.


On August 29, 1999, we witnessed an extremely important development in the history of the women workers' movement. All those who committed themselves to the unity of women workers and the improvement of women workers' rights based on the Korea Women Workers Associations gathered together to establish the Korean Women's Trade Union (KWTU).

The KWTU takes the demands of every working woman as the essential consideration in the improvement of women workers' rights and for the development of female strength.

The present situation confronting women workers at the gateway to the 21st century can be summed up in the following facts:

64% of women workers are employed in workplaces with less than 4 workers; 70% of women workers are employed on an irregular basis; women workers are the primary targets for dismissal; women workers are pressurized to resign upon marriage or pregnancy; the rate of organized women is only 5.6%.

There is no more room for maneuver for the women who are working under constantly deteriorating conditions.

The KWTU is a union which works for the organization of women workers and for the expansion of women workers' rights, with the essential task of campaigning for the realization of the demands of working women. The KWTU works for the improvement of conditions facing women workers and for the solution of all the difficulties hampering women workers-marital difficulties, problems arising from giving birth, child care, discrimination in society as a whole and in the workplace, and so on.





 



explanation> Inaugural ceremony of the KWTU

KWTU is open to every working woman in every occupational field and work position and aims to unify women workers across the nation.

It is difficult for women workers to hold down long-term jobs for a variety of reasons including the simultaneous maintenance of the responsibilities of marriage, pregnancy, child care, and nursing.

The economic areas they occupy have seen a general shift from the clerical field to manufacturing, to housewives, to home-makers, and then to insurance agents when their children have grown up. The KWTU will try to adapt its policies to the various forms of women workers' lives. It is hoped that the KWTU will be a good model for unorganized women workers.

KWTU strives for the healthy development of Korean society

The industrialization of Korea has progressed propped up by the sacrifices made by women such as accepting low wages, full responsibility for house work, prior dismissal, and so on. This way of development is hampering the healthy long-term development of Korean society, but it continues because of the low organizational rate of women workers.

We shall be protesting against the sacrifice of women for any reason and building an equal and satisfactory social development through organizing women workers and improving women's access to power. We believe that we can level up the role of women in the 21st century when society will require more creative, benevolent, and collaborative social relations for progress.

How to manage satisfactorily a women's trade union which encompasses various occupations?

The KWTU has chosen as its main tasks assisting the development of women, promoting projects which maximize the participation of women, and expanding the welfare of its members. Another task of the KWTU is to assist solidarity in and between units in various areas and to provide leadership and direction for the KWTU as a whole.

We believe that we can achieve this through the heartfelt will of our members, listening to comments and advice from those who have committed themselves to the development of the women workers' mass movement, and solidarity. Based on these, we will gradually find the answers for the times.



Korea Working Women's Network 1999
Posted by KWWA
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