mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕">KHMU Newsletter mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕">No. 8 June 30, 2021
The KHMU Organize Rally to Declare General Strike
Two
thousand KHMU union members raised a united voice for “an infectious disease
response system, stronger public medical services and a higher level of medical
staff”
On
23rd, the Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union (The KHMU) held a
rally with around 2000 union members in front of the Ministry of Health and
Welfare and declared that it would go into an industry-wide general strike in 2nd
September.
At
the rally, the KHMU urged the government to ▲ establish an infectious disease
response system ▲ solve the low staffing level issues ▲ improve the current
shiftwork policies and introduce the 4-day workweek system ▲ fully implement
the Act on Health and Medical Personnel ▲root out illegal medical practices ▲
secure a sufficient level of budget for extensive public medical services ▲
provide life and safety allowance to medical staff at the frontline fighting
against COVID-19 ▲ convert contract or part-time job positions to permanent or
full-time positions ▲ make a legal framework for industry-level collective
bargaining.
Union
members at the rally officially committed that they as the ones who have a
mission and take responsibility, would stand tall and proudly go into the
general strike to bring about fundamental changes to hospitals and medical
sites The Statement of Resolution reaffirms that the industrial general strike
for 2021 is a legitimate action to protect health and life of people.
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President
Na Soon-ja stressed that the pre- and post-COVID-19 should be clearly
different.
She
also said, “First, our work at the frontline should be compensated. The core of
compensations includes an increase in a staffing level and improvement in
working conditions in a practical manner.” For more specific proposals, she
mentioned ‘to establish medical personnel placement standard’, ‘to improve nightshift
work system’, ‘to adopt 4-day workweek system’, ‘to convert contract-based job positions
to permanent ones’, and ‘to ensure doctors must not hand over their jobs to
nurses’.
Secondly,
she demanded expansion of public medical services. “National medical centers,
regional medical centers, national university hospitals and public hospitals for
special purposes should be funded to secure a sufficient staffing level. The
government should also support private university hospitals and small and
medium sized medical institutions when the services that those hospitals
provide serves the general public,” she said.
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Lastly,
President Na highlighted that on May 31st, the KHMU has started the first-ever bargaining
session with the government in history and said, “It was possible to directly
negotiate with the government thanks to the commitment of 80,000 union members
on the general strike. No struggles, no gains.”
At
the rally, union members from Gachon University Gil Medical Center shared their
testimonials and union members who work on a contract basis at Busan National
University Hospital appealed to the public to urge conversion of casual working
positions to permanent ones. These non-regular workers have been protesting at
tent before the Ministry of Education for 44 days now.
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