hankyoreh

Jan. 13.　 (Photo by Lee Jong-keun)　　　

Lee Seung-joon and Kim Ji-hoon　

“I am so happy not to be worrying whether I am going to be fired or not. There is a world of difference between having a labor union and not having one.”

On Tuesday afternoon, while cleaning workers at Seoul’s Hongik University held a demonstration at the school’s front gate denouncing mass layoffs by the school, “Lee,” a 46-year-old cleaning worker, was at Duksung Women’s University busily moving desks in a classroom.

“Ever since the labor union came to be, I have been able to say what I want to,” Lee said. “I can also rest on Saturdays, and it is nice to spend more time with my family.”

The Hongik workers had been protesting against the school’s layoffs, and attention is now focusing on universities that have found a way to coexist by guaranteeing employment for cleaning workers.

Like the Hongik workers, the 48 cleaning workers at Duksung Women’s University are irregular workers hired by a service contracting agency. However, the labor environment and treatment of the workers gradually began to change after they formed a labor union in October 2007. Their monthly salary went up from 730 thousand Won ($655) before the union’s formation to 1.05 million Won. The practice of uncompensated work on Saturdays disappeared. The workers also no longer had to endure frequent character insults by the agency manager and improper orders such as demand that they pick up garbage from a bus stop located 100 meters away from the school’s front gate. The workers’ lounge, which workers said was like a refugee camp, was provided with heating and cooling systems and personal lockers.

“Most of all, it is great not to have to worry about getting fired if we protest unjust treatment and demand improvements,” Lee said.

“Since the union was formed, they can no longer hire a substitute work force for a three-month period even if we get sick,” said another worker, “Jeong,” who has been working at the school for over eight years. “It is a great relief.”

Relatively freed from concern about their employment status, workers have been able to focus more on their work. “Since the union was formed, the cleaning workers have rallied together more and worked more responsibly to avoid giving the union a bad image,” said a contracting agency official.

Han Won-sun, 55, head of the Korea Public Service Union’s Duksung Women’s University chapter, said, “At the time the union was being established, the university president made efforts to have dialogue with the union, and most of the students gave their support, so we were able to be avoid an extreme situation like the one at Hongik.”

“Cleaning workers need to know that they are also part of the school,” Han added. “The question is what Hongik University hopes to get from fighting with powerless workers.”

Some universities have brought cleaning workers into the fold by hiring them as full-time employees. At Samyuk University in Seoul, the cleaning workers do not have a labor union, but 13 of the 21 are employed as full-time workers. Of the remaining eight working on contracts, three were hired on again at the university after reaching retirement age. While the university, which was established by a religious foundation, only hires individuals of the same religion, it is working to minimize discrimination among school members by hiring everyone from cleaning workers to bus drivers as full-time employees.

Most of the workers have been with the university for over two decades. Those who have been on staff for ten years receive a monthly salary between 1.5 million and 2 million Won. They also enjoy similar benefits with the other school personnel.

The cleaning workers naturally develop a sense of pride and ownership toward their work.

“We work full-time, but the amount of work handled by one person is large,” said “Kim Gyeong-ja,” 50, who has worked for the school for ten years.

However, Kim said, “Everyone is satisfied working in a family-like atmosphere. I would like to stay here until I retire.”

As she squeezed out her mop, Kim added, “I often find myself thinking, ‘I would like the students and professors in the building I handle to work in a clean environment.’ I think that must be a sense of ownership.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]