4. Celebrating 3.8 International Women’s Day, “Initiatives for Women Labor Politics” declared the Declaration of Independence for Women Labor in 2014.
HOT ISSUES & NOTICE 2016. 12. 2. 13:192014 the Declaration of Independence for Women labor
Winter thawing spring came.
All creations come alive, the world is bubbling over with an air of life.
Nature welcomes seasons and changes following the laws of nature.
The time of season can’t block the spring coming
The time of people remains in winter,
Someone endures time of sorrow
Someone bears time of despair
Someone rides out time of brutality.
Citizens of Korea who endure time with full of pain, gruesome new were heard.
Mother and two daughters committed suicide together due to hardship of life.
Mother, who worked at a restaurant, got injured arm on her way home from work but couldn’t apply for occupational health and safety insurance.
She couldn’t help quitting the job, but couldn’t receive unemployment benefits.
She had worked without any rest, but she is so poor as she has no spare money apart from monthly rent, living expenses, and medical bills.
The mother and two daughters who had not applied for recipient for national basic livelihood
At the last moment when they took their own lives, said sorry.
The story is not only about the deceased of mother and daughters.
Even now, somewhere in this land
Working hard but don’t get paid for the work done and being poor,
Overnight kicked out of job
Being sick no work
People who have to worry about their daily bread are around.
Neighbors, who think of quitting on life due to no job, are also around.
We, who live in a society where social safety net is poor
Whether working or not, or what kind of work
Eke out a bare existence,
Live,
Dram of lives, or
Give up on lives.
“My fellow citizens!If lives of people are uneasy, however state get developed, that would be meaningless. Once bearing and rearing children are true blessing, no worry about old age, the era of national welfare become completed. Any single of people should not feel fear that one might not manage basic life.” Park Guenhye president spoke at inaugural address.
Unlike President Park Guenhye talking about ‘the era of national welfare’
2014 today Korea, there is plenty of complaints from people who shout ‘want to live’.
Here are women who account for half of Korean population.
To Korean women who have been suffering and uneasy,
Another like a bolt from the blue is happening.
Under name of ‘decent part-time job’.
Source of forcing women into ‘part-time job’
Is the President Park Guenhye, for the first time, female president.
Promised open of the hopeful new era
Promised a country where all of nation are 100% happy, the president Park Guenhye.
To achieve the presidential promise, ‘70% employment rate’
With low wage and no protection from labor standard Act.
Driving women to bad job, ‘part-time job’.
Don’t even try to mention decent jobs on time basis
until improve the poor conditions of more than 1.8million part-time jobs
under low wage without benefits of four basic social insurances as workers.
There already exist lots of women workers taking low-pay part-time jobs
whose expansion can’t help but to drive women workers into lower wage and insecure employment.
Don’t try to deceive women have a choice to want a part-time job in her need.
Women workers are forced to accept one or two part-times jobs for remaining in miserable living conditions.
Don’t try to justify women’s career interruption for the sake of family.
Don’t force women to set their top priorities on homemaking
which not only encourages job segregation for gender but also degrades women’s social status down mainly to give a birth and shoulder all burden of home-care.
In this social circumstance, women, even in order to balance between work and home, are supposed to accept jobs in informal sectors only to be assistant breadwinners while men are supposed to secure jobs in formal sectors.
Balance between work and home should establish prerequisites of feasible social and working conditions for both women and men.
Don’t try to persuade women into accepting part-time jobs to build career.
Part-time workers do chores and secondary tasks, increasing recently for the result of make wrong use of related laws and regulations .
In this social surrounding, bringing-up children cannot be a blessing and a new era of “Happy Koreans” cannot come close to us.
In 196-70s of Korea, Park Jung-hee, Military Dictator was notorious for exploiting young women workers by presenting them a beautified name of “a Pillar of Industry”. Thanks to their bloody tears and sweats, Korea has created enviable economic success while women workers had to endure poor working conditions, inhumane treatment as well as low wage, only to fail to secure basic human rights as workers.
Entering 2014, Park Geun-hye, his daughter, is trying to take advantage of women workers again: taking it for granted that women should sacrifice themselves for the sake of our society to reach the political goal of “70% employment ratio” while no considering quality of job and labor rights for women.
Park Geun-hye is calling for women workers to accept “labor in no return” so as to overcome the current economic crisis, learning from his father compelling “Yushin(the Revitalizing Reform)” in the early stage of economic development in Korea to minimize the possibilities of economic social political crisis.
We want to live in such a society:
where labor by women workers should be equally respected as meaningful contribution,
where people who have the will to work can do labor
where return for labor should guarantee the real living standards
where regardless of gender people can get jobs they want for their efforts
where people have no fear for losing jobs when applying for maternity and childcare leave as well as reporting pregnancy
where workers are not informed of unfair dismissal on employer’s own discretion
where workers should be recognized and respected
where both men and women do heart-warming labor for caring their own family and others in help
where people have no worries for survival while stop working
We do hereby declare this Announcement of Independence for Women Labor in order for women workers to be subjects of labor as human beings.
6th of March, 2014
Initiatives for Women Labor Politics · Women Labor Activists from 1970s
