[사설]Launch of the first ‘online union’, hoping to become a catalyst for a society that respects labor

The Workplace Gapjil 119 Online Labor Union is holding its launch ceremony online on the 3rd. Provided by Workplace Gapjil 119 Online Labor Union

An online union has been established for the first time in Korea, allowing workers and job seekers from small and medium-sized businesses without a labor union to join regardless of their occupation or industry. ‘Workplace Gapjil 119 Online Union’ announced on the 4th that it received a union establishment report from the Ministry of Employment and Labor and began activities based on an online cafe. It is welcome that a new form of union has been created that lowers the threshold so that workers who had difficulty joining or forming a union can join anonymously.

As soon as the union was launched, two industry-specific branches were established, including a social welfare branch and a Korean language teacher branch. In the future, industries such as hospitals and clinics and information technology (IT) will be added to the umbrella. This is the first large-scale corporate union to form an industry branch when workers join the union and reach a certain size (30 people). In these two industries, there were difficulties in forming unions due to the small size of the workplace. It is said that workers here had many grievances, such as having no place to complain even if they were harassed or abused at work. We hope that the establishment of a union will lead to improvements in the poor working conditions of these workers.

The background to the creation of online unions is the reality that it is difficult to join and become active in unions unless you are in the public sector or large corporations. According to the results of Workplace Gapjil 119’s survey of 1,000 office workers last February, ‘concerns about disadvantages due to joining a labor union’ was the most common reason for not joining a union, at 39.1% (multiple responses). This was followed by ‘because there is no trust in existing labor union activities’ (34.4%), ‘burden of union dues and assembly participation’ (31.9%), and ‘because the threshold to join a labor union is high’ (19.9%). The domestic union density rate is only 13%, and even this is dominated by the public sector, large corporations, and regular workers. The majority of small and medium-sized and non-regular workers who need more protection are in the blind spot of union activities.

Labor unions are a mechanism to guarantee humane labor. In that respect, the launch of a union that lowered the threshold so that workers could more easily find the ‘right to unionize’ guaranteed by the Constitution is significant. It is highly likely that the number of union members who agree with the purpose will increase. The Yoon Seok-yeol government should change its policy to encourage union activities rather than just calling for ‘severe crackdown on illegal unions.’ We must realize that the labor reform promoted by the government cannot be achieved if it ignores workers exercising their legitimate labor rights. We hope that the online union will bring a new wind to labor-management relations and become a catalyst for a society that respects labor.