“Sorry, mom and dad. I wouldn't live for making a lot of money through working at a big company."

“I hope I can change even a little bit. I have been losing hopes and trying just to accept my reality."

“I hope I can find what I really wish. I hope I can have peaceful mind, not being a slave to the word, 'employment'!"

(opinions of some participants in the Youth Hope Academy)

Youth Hope Academy was held every Thursday evening between May 6 and June 10, under the flag of 'Joyful Imagination, Thrilling Changes!'. It was the first education program for women youth that we at the KWWA have endeavored to organize. We organized this program for youth who are considered to be synonyms of uncertainty and dispair in Korea today. In particular, we focused on 'daily things related to foods and living' which is the biggest concerns for Korean youth, and we also explored alternative ways, including ways to enhance their independence and to balance co-existence and mutual aids.

We at the KWWA planned and included a special lecture regarding 'Hope' which was delivered by Jo-Han He-jung, a professor of Yonsei University, a lecture on alternative social economy such as social enterprises, lectures for sharing specializing in and exploring youth's social enterprises and community case studies. We also provided a variety of programs including women's discourse lecture, joyful bull sessions amongst leading youth representatives, and a vision-making workshop.

A Proclamation of 591 Social Leaders Urging the Samsung Electronics to Take the Responsibility of Laborers’ Occupational Disease

“No More Victims in the Samsung Electronics”

In 2003, Yoo-Mee Hwang, a third-year student at Sokcho High School, was employed just before her graduation at the Samsung Electronics’ Semiconductor Plant in Giheung. She participated in the defusion process dipping wafer - a thin slice of semiconductor material - into compounds such as hydrogen peroxide and ammonium sulfide. Ji-Youn Park was also employed at Samsung Semiconductor Plant in Onyang. Unable to proceed with her study in college, she had no choice but to start working prior to high school graduation. This eighteen-year-old girl worked in the examination process handling lead solvent and other chemicals. Their pride of working in a leading corporation in South Korea withered away very soon. Both of these young girls got Acute Myeloid Leukemia after two years of work in the corporation and passed away in 2007 and 2010.

While South Korea’s gross national income per capita exceeded 20,000 U.S. dollars in 2007, adolescents from poor families are still under pressure of getting a job soon after mid-school or high-school graduation. Shoe and clothing industries in 1970s have changed into high-tech clean industries such as semiconductor and LCD, but laborers are still in danger of death from hundreds of toxic chemicals used in IT products.

Several years have passed since the laborers working at the Samsung Electronics’ Semiconductor Plants in Giheung and Onyang became victims of Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Nothing has been done, however, for their industrial injury treatment and compensation. The danger of working in these high-tech industries has increasingly been revealed after the continuing social exposure of the deaths of the Samsung Electronics’ laborers. According to the Supporters of Health and Rights of People in Semiconductor Industry (SHARPS), over 100 laborers got lethal disease including leukemia, lymphoma, and brain tumor and 31 have already passed away. Although a further systematic examination is needed for confirming the causes of these deaths, this approximate number of victims in a single corporation is already an alarming signal to the society.

Afraid of harming its image, Samsung has denied its responsibility and rejected to provide injury compensation for its laborers. The governmental branches under charge of industrial safety and accidents such as the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, and the Korean Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service are putting emphasis on industrial security over laborers’ rights. As the Samsung Electronics and the South Korean government shirk their responsibilities and as our society disregard the people who actually make the fascinating smart phone and maintain high speed internet, the laborers who devoted their lives to the Samsung Electronics are taking occupational disease and passing away without proper treatment.

Will we keep disregarding these laborers of the Samsung Electronics who are lack of time and energy? In order to resolve this problem in regard to occupational disease, we urge the Samsung Electronics, the government, and the National Assembly to do the following:

First, Samsung should admit its responsibility of the laborers’ occupational disease and do its best to solve the problem.

Samsung is the leading corporation in semiconductor industry, occupying 35% in the DRAM semiconductor world market and exceeding 5 trillion won in the second quarter of this year. Samsung’s attitude toward this case of occupational disease, however, is very disappointing. It is obvious that laborers in semiconductor industry handle toxic chemicals and that they are able to accidently be exposed to those chemicals. Samsung has ignored this obvious fact, only caring for its faultless image. Samsung has neglected its suffering laborers and preventing them from receiving industrial injury compensation from the government.

Instead of concealing the case, Samsung should take the responsibility of its victims. The first step is to admit that the suffering laborers as the victims of occupational disease.

Second, the government should confirm the diseases as industrial accidents, conduct a reliable and systematic examination, and take charge of revising the relevant legislations.

While 16 Samsung laborers suffering from occupational disease have applied for industrial accident by now, 10 cases have been disapproved by the government and 6 are still pending. While the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance aims at protecting laborers by immediately compensating for laborers’ industrial accident, the government is asking for a clearer scientific causal relation from the victims who do not even have information accessibility. Furthermore, it is revealed in a recent inspection of the administration affairs that the government took allowed the Samsung Electronics to actively participate in the administrative lawsuit filed by the laborers. Now it is confusing whether the government serves for employees’ welfare or Samsung’s welfare.

Doing its duty to protect laborers’ life and health, the government should admit the suffering laborers as victims of industrial accident. In order to serve the purpose of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance, the government should revise the legislations related to industrial safety and accident and relax the responsibility of the victims to provide scientific evidence in support of occupational disease.

Third, the National Assembly should force the government to conduct a reliable examination and revise the legislations related to industrial accident and chemical management.

In the most recent inspection of the administration affairs, both governing and opposition parties urged the government to solve the case of Samsung laborers’ occupational disease. While there has been a single examination from the government, however, it was suspicious in terms of impartiality and reliability. The current examination conducted by Samsung itself is also far from being impartial.

Accordingly, both governing and opposition parties in the National Assembly should collaborate with each other to conduct a reliable examination at the national-level. In addition, both parties should immediately revise the legislations related to industrial accident and chemical management and provide a prompt and impartial protection for the laborers suffering from industrial accidents.

December 21, 2010

Best,

591 Social Leaders;

- 88 Health and Medical practitioner

- 159 Legal Experts

- 33 Professors

- 65 Writers

- 3 Religious Leaders

- 45 Human Rights Movement Leaders

- 37 Women Rights Movement Leaders

- 64 Labor Movement Leaders

- 87 Civil Society Campaign Leaders

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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.