hankyoreh

By Park Seung-heon, staff reporter

Since Chung-Ang University filed an injunction asking a court to fine striking cleaning workers 1 million won (US$948) each time they put up posters on campus, students have started putting up their own posters to parody the move.

After hearing the news about the university’s suit, students have been putting up posters in the main building and the law building on campus since Jan. 4. The posters contain a variety of messages: “This poster is worth 1 million won.” “Their cries cannot be muzzled by 1 million won.” “Here is another 1 million won poster.” The students are criticizing the school’s request for an injunction as an “excessive” attempt to quell the strike. Cleaning workers at the school make around 1.2 million won (US$1,130) a month.

“The cleaning workers who are on strike taped up posters to tell students that they feel sorry and to talk about their difficulties. When I heard that the school had put a 1 million won price tag on this, I felt ashamed of the fact that my university is a place where the owners of the school - the students and the workers - are not able to say anything,” said Jang Min-kyung, 21, who put up a poster. “I hope they aren’t able to stop the voices of the workers who are courageously taking action to protect their rights.”

Another student surnamed Kang, 24, pinned some fake 1 million won bills to a poster he wrote. “A university is a place where anyone can speak. I want to go to a university where people can put up a poster even if they don’t have 1 million won,” Kang said.

It is not just students at Chung-Ang University. At other schools, including Korea University, Soongsil University, the University of Seoul, and Korea National University of Arts, students have also sent posters to Chung-Ang University to express their support and solidarity. “The school is even robbing the cleaning workers of their right to speak. I wrote a poster to express my support for the cleaning workers,” said Park So-yeon, 23, who attends Soongsil University.

A student at Korea National University of Arts put up a poster at Chung-Ang University that parodies the corporate logo of Doosan Group, which owns the university. The parody says, “People are the future (except for striking workers).”

The students are also planning to hold an event for forming a Righteous Peace Fund. For every message of poster that is sent to cauokay@gmail.com in support of the cleaning staff, 1 million won of fake money will be added to the fund.

Various responses were made on Twitter and other social media criticizing the university. Netizens wrote, “I’ll pay the price to let you sing a song” and “Write whatever you want, and I’ll pay for the poster.”

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