굴림;color:black;letter-spacing:-1.0pt;mso-font-width:90%;mso-font-kerning:0pt">[Press
Conference]
mso-fareast-font-family:HY견고딕;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">Emergency
Statement by KHMU President Na Soon-ja Two Days before Strike
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mso-fareast-font-family:휴먼명조;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">Two Days before
General Strike!
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color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">I Once Again Urge the Government and Ruling
Party to Make the Decision!
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mso-fareast-font-family:휴먼명조;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">Over the past
three months since starting on May 31, negotiations between the Health and
Medical Workers’ Union and the Ministry of Health and Welfare have been held 12
times.The 12th round of negotiation on August 30, three days before
the scheduled strike, continued for a long time of 14 hours from 3 p.m. to 5
a.m. the next day.
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mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">
mso-fareast-font-family:휴먼명조;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">I would like to
express my deepest apologies to the public for the fact that, despite the
recent two consecutive marathon negotiations, we have unfortunately been unable
to reach a final agreement.
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mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">Regrettably,
today's statement by the Minister of Health and Welfare is only repeating their
position that it is difficult to come to an agreement right now, as the
ministry has talked about several times.
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">I would like to
ask what additional discussions they have made with other stakeholders besides
us, rather than repeating the phrase, "Let's discuss the tasks for a long
term since they need to be implemented for a long run” during the past three
months of negotiations.
color:black">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">The ministry also
needs to answer what kind of support and measures this government has been
striving to provide to nurses and other healthcare workers who are desperately
fighting coronavirus in the field right now.
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mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">Although the
negotiations have continued for a long time of three months, now we have to
look back and ask whether we have wasted the precious time without any result
due to the neglect of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and other financial
authorities and the reluctance of the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">We have tried as
much as possible to narrow differences in opinions on the eight key issues
through two rounds of marathon negotiations, which was our sincerity to reach
an agreement without a strike.
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mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">However, the
remaining five key issues that have not been agreed upon up to this moment
should be addressed, as we have been emphasizing over and over again, in order
for the union not to go on strike.
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mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">
mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;color:black">1.
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">This is the most
urgent claim of staff at COVID-19 hospitals. It is necessary to prepare
standards for medical personnel who care for COVID-19 patients. This is a very
just demand so that many people and the media question why no such standards
have been prepared yet for the past 20 months. The budget for them must be
secured urgently while institutionalizing the life safety allowance to be paid
to nurses and other healthcare staff working at COVID-19 hospitals.
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mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">
mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;color:black">2.
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">It needs to expand
public healthcare. As the government itself stated, specific plans for
addressing the lack of public hospitals should be prepared and presented to
establish a regionally complete medical system for each of the 70 mid-size care
areas. More government subsidies should be provided to at least those 70
mid-size care areas without preliminary feasibility studies. This is a very
reasonable demand that contains aspirations for the national and regional
expansion of public hospitals. If it is so difficult for the Ministry of Health
and Welfare to make a decision to resolve this issue while reading the mind of
the Ministry of Economy and Finance and making excuses of local governments,
then the president and prime minister must now take action.
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">
mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;color:black">3.
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">No more delay
should be allowed in improving the treatment of nurses COVID-19 heroes. It is
not true that the current situation has been created only by the prolonged
pandemic, and before that, there were no problems with their treatment at all.
Discontent about the ill treatment of nurses, which has accumulated for more
than several decades, is now bursting out as it was no longer possible to
contain it due to the prolonged pandemic. In order to improve the working
conditions of nurses, which were notorious even before the pandemic, and the
quality of nursing services, it is necessary to drastically lower the number of
patients a nurse has to take care of by stipulating the ratio of nurses to
patients in law, as seen in the U.S.’s one to five, or Japan’s one to seven,
and change the worst night shift work at hospitals to regular and predictable
shifts.
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">
mso-fareast-font-family:Arial;color:black">4.
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">The training-only
nurse system, which has greatly helped reduce the turnover rate of new nurses
over the past three years, should be fully expanded. The Ministry of Health and
Welfare itself said that the system received favorable evaluations. However, it
is repeatedly arguing that careful consideration is necessary to expand the
system because it requires massive manpower movement, and it is difficult to
implement the system because the opposition of the financial authorities makes
it difficult to secure financial resources due to.
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">
color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">5. Since night nursing fees, which are
directly related to improving the treatment of nurses, are differentiated by
region and hospital size, the proposal to unify the fee rate nationwide to
enhance equity is a perfectly normal and reasonable claim. However, no progress
has yet to be made because they have repeated arguing that it is difficult to
discuss.
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">I once again
appeal to the public to understand our desperation that we have no choice but
to continue the negotiations until this moment today while leaving the strike
as our last resort.
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mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">We will do our
best to reach an agreement before the strike begins.
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mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">Once again, I urge
the government and the ruling party to make a decision to reach an agreement on
key issues.
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">The Minister of
Health and Welfare should be the first who make the decision.
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">If it lies beyond
his authority, the Minister of Economy and Finance himself must step up to the
plate.
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">Prime Minister Kim
Boo-kyum, the commander of the COVID-19 prevention and control, must directly
step in to ensure a pan-government function can be performed.
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">I also ask the
representatives of the ruling and opposition parties to play an active role in
the budget compilation and legislation as you said at meetings with us that you
fully agreed with our demands.
굴림;color:black">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">During the
disastrous pandemic, if the government and the union fail to come to an
agreement on and secure a driving force for a policy that is overwhelmingly
supported by all public, the result will not be simply a “medical crisis” for a
few days, but the “exodus” of 230,000 clinical nurses and the collapse of the
medical care system. If it becomes a reality, the transition to “With COVID-19”
and the “K-quarantine” will inevitably end in failure. We do not have time now.
The ruling party must take the current situation gravely.
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">If there is no response
to our efforts to reach an agreement, the 80,000 members of the union will
inevitably go on a general strike and joint action. I make it clear that we
have no choice but to engage in “the most desperate struggle in the world” at
the Sejong government complex and in each region of the country while strictly
observing social distancing and infection preventive measures.
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">The
mso-fareast-font-family:"맑은 고딕";color:black"> Korean
mso-fareast-font-family:"맑은 고딕";color:black">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">Health and Medical
Workers’ Union wants neither a strike nor any harm to COVID-19 patients. But we
can not stand this any longer. Medical personnel on the front lines of the
pandemic say that this strike is their last hope to stop thinking of resigning.
They are now standing on the brink.
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mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">The government
must give hope to our COVID-19 heroes. I urge the government to make a sincere
decision.
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">
휴먼명조;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">August 31, 2021 mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black">
mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">
HY견고딕;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt">Korean Health and Medical Workers’Union mso-fareast-font-family:굴림;color:black">
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