“[Video] Making 1200 meals with just two or three people only earns 1.868 million won monthly.”

“I have been working in the cafeteria for 13 years and was diagnosed with lung cancer on August 8, 2022 and am recovering. Even now (in the lunchroom) two or three people need to cook 1200 servings in two hours. Even if new recruits are hired, more than half of them run away, saying they did not know it would be this hard, and the remaining workers work without rest. Make it a safe, pleasant place to work. Are we making unreasonable demands?” The 13-year-old catering worker, who went on stage wearing a catering chef’s hat, continued to speak in a quiet voice. On the 31st, the workers who participated in the ‘National School Temporary Workers New Semester General Strike’ (general strike) held by the school non-regular workers union (tutoring union) wore pink vests, which became a symbol of the school expenses union, and listened to their colleagues. On that day, about 30,000 non-regular (public service) workers belonging to the National Association of School Non-regular Workers (School Fees Coalition), who are in charge of meals, childcare, and after-school learning, went on strike and held rallies across the country. . They held collective wage negotiations with the employers, the Ministry of Education and the superintendents of cities and provinces, from last September, but an agreement was not reached until March of the new semester. Since 2017, non-regular school workers have held nationwide collective bargaining, which is rare in Korea, to determine equal wages and working conditions for each job category. The Ministry of Education announced on the same day that lunchrooms in 3,293 schools (25.9% of schools eligible for meals) were not operating due to a general strike by non-regular workers at schools, so meals were replaced with bread, milk or lunch boxes. There are 150 schools (2.5% of schools operating childcare classes) that do not operate elementary school childcare classes. At the general strike meeting, Park Mi-hyang, head of the Tuition Fee Union, said, “You may have a lot of worries and concerns, but we will do a fair general strike and go back to school.” School non-regular workers who went on a general strike demanded △a basic salary increase △wage system reform △specific measures for the lung cancer problem in cafeterias △discrimination against public officials and welfare benefits △recruitment of manpower. Kang Kyu-hyeok, chairman of the KCTU Service Federation, said, “We acknowledge differences, but what we ask for is that there should be no discrimination.” “We are not asking for 50 million won or 100 million won. It’s just a request for even 80%,” he shouted. The basic salary of food service cooks is 1,868,000 won, and the basic salary increase rate for public officials in education proposed by the government this year is around 2% depending on the type of job.

Students from a middle school in Gyeonggi-do wrote and posted messages in support of the general strike of part-time (public office) workers at the school. Provided by the National Education and Public Service Headquarters of the Public Transport Workers’ Union.

Going beyond the basic pay increase, the Tuition Union protested that the basic pay and longevity allowance for each job category were organized in a “fist-and-mouth style,” and demanded the formation of a labor-management consultative body to reorganize the wage system to realize the principle of “equal pay for work of equal value.” Lee Su-hyeon, head of the Incheon branch of the Tuition Fee Union, said, “To break down the loathsome low-wage discrimination, we have united as a labor union and stopped the school site.” In particular, the participants at the rally were angry at the reality that the authorities related to the lung cancer issue of catering workers were neglecting. Park Min-ah, co-representative of Political Mothers, who made a solidarity statement, said, “I am ashamed that I did not know that the crispy fried rice and fried rice that children liked were in exchange for the health of food service workers. I didn’t know if it was a meal that destroyed someone’s lungs.” According to government research and expert analysis, the incidence of lung cancer among catering workers is 4.9 to 16.4 times higher than those in their late 50s. Regarding the general strike of non-regular school workers, the government said, “The Ministry of Education and 17 provincial and provincial offices of education will continue to do their best to reach a collective wage bargaining agreement in 2022, and we will also actively work to protect the health of food service workers, such as improving the cooking environment in school cafeterias.”

Reporter Bang Jun-ho and Lee Yu-jin whorun@hani.co.kr