mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕">KHMU Newsletter mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕">No. 5 May 10, 2021
The KHMU finalizes the year 2021
requests and campaign directions
Commitment to general strike in
September to strengthen public ownership of medical services and to increase
employment levels in health and medical institutions
“The
ROK government! Vote for suspending COVID-19 vaccines patents”
The
Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union (The KHMU, President Na Soon-ja) resolved
to fight for establishment of an infectious disease response system, increases
in public medical services, eradication of illegal practices in hospitals,
expansion of employment levels in medical services, improvement of shift work
systems and adoption of the four-day workweek system. To that end, they will develop
a general strike in September this year in case that demands are not accepted and
the requests mentioned above will be all included in the agenda of
industry-level collective bargaining.
Starting
from 1:00 PM on April 29, in the virtual ad-hoc congress, the congress members
(207 participants out of 210 in total) remotely discussed where they focus on
in their fights going forward and made a final decision to have these three
requests: 1. increase and beef up public medical services, 2. expand employment
levels in hospitals, 3. improve industrial relations and ensure labor union activities.
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The
Union’s industry-level negotiation will take place during May and with its
first formal bow with employer representatives on June 2, it will run the
negotiations every Wednesday according to their timeline. Each branch of the
Union will finalize its own requests by the end of May and branches will also
negotiate with their employers in parallel with the central negotiations of the
Union. In case that the Union and employers fail to reach an agreement at the
industry-level negotiations, the Union will go into a general strike in early
September after going through dispute mediations in August.
The
KHMU President Na Soon-ja said, “Health and medical services require workers to
do toughest physical and mental labor, way more than any other services as well
as even night shift work. Our union of 80,000 members should firmly mobilize
our capabilities in resolution this year for more and better public medical
services, increased number of workforces in medical institutions, improved
shift work systems, regularization of irregular job positions and reformation
of health and medical laws and regulations.” She also added, “Such issues that
we raised this time are what we have already been discussing in public domain
multiple times for so long. We participated in public sessions with
governmental agencies and emphasized the problems, too. Every time, the
government said they understood our situations but has never come up with any
solutions since then. It is high time to fight at a large scale now.” “ Let’s
all, 80,000 workers in our union, struggle together to advance happier
workplaces for workers,” she appealed to the congress.
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The
main requests to the government for year 2021 includes: ▲ overcome COVID-19
crisis and establish an infectious disease response system ▲ increase and
strengthen public medical services ▲ set up a rule for the number of healthcare
workers employed by different jobs and sizes of institutions and increase
employment levels ▲ root out illegal practices in hospitals ▲ improve shift
work systems and phase in a four-day workweek system (32 hour workweek system) ▲
regularize irregular job positions
▲
institutionalize industry-level labor-management negotiations and ensure labor
union activities
In
the fights and discussions with the government, the KHMU will also send a
special focus on COVID 19 agenda, i.e., overcome COVID-19 crisis and establish
an infectious disease response system. The Union will publicly raise voices on
these issues and endeavor to bring about substantial results during
negotiations. At the same time, they will not spare their energy in holding
rallies and strikes, one of which is the industry-level general strike for
their requests to the government.
The
Union’s branches share the following common requests: ▲ overcome COVID-19
crisis and establish an infectious disease response system ▲ increase
employment levels and root out illegal practices in hospitals ▲ improve shift
work systems ▲ resolve problems in relation to contract workers ▲ reach an
agreement to get over climate crisis ▲ adopt a sick leave system
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It
is noteworthy that based on the rationale that infectious diseases and its
spread come from climate crises, for the first time in its history, the Union
included such requests as declaration of joint-statement on climate issues by
labor and management as well as joint activities against climate change. To
this end, the Union insists that trainings and educations on how to respond to
climate changes should be provided to the entire workforces on a regular basis;
labor and management should develop climate campaigns for patients and their
caregivers and prepare joint action plans to establish response systems in case
of infectious diseases outbreaks and medical disasters, reduce greenhouse
gases, and use more renewable energy and adopt more efficient ways to use
energy.
In
addition, the request on wage was also finalized. The Union decided to request
a 5.6% increase of wage against the total pay level (201,000 KRW per month on
the basis of fixed salary) and discuss this in industry-level negotiations with
employers of each hospital. They will also request the minimum wage should set
at 10,702 KRW per hour, effective from year 2022 onward.
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Separate from those mentioned above, the congress
also decided in consensus to announce the Union’s position that the government
should support the proposal of COVID-19 vaccine patents suspension and passage
of its resolution at the national assembly for global solidarity and
international cooperation. Currently, the intellectual property rights owned by
big pharmaceutical companies have limited vaccine productions and uses around
the world.