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Lee Hyo-ri’s tweet about Ssangyong Motor workers

Singer Lee Hyo-ri tweeted a message of support to two union members who have been protesting from atop a 70-meter smokestack at the Ssangyong Motor factory in Pyeongtaek since Dec. 13.

Protesters Kim Jeong-wook and Lee Chang-geun, who were dismissed by the automaker in 2009, are respectively the chief secretary and policy planning office director for the Ssangyong Motor chapter of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union.

Lee, 35, used her account (@frog799) on Dec. 18 to retweet a “Media Today” piece suggesting that laid-off Ssangyong Workers be used as models in advertising for the automaker’s upcoming Tivoli release.

“I hope Ssangyong’s new Tivoli sells a lot when it comes out next year so a company that had to let go of workers can gain stability and the people who lost their jobs can get them back,” Lee wrote.

“If this happens, then I’ll put on a bikini and do a dance in front of the Tivoli,” she added.

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Lee also showed her sense of humor. When a follower wrote, “How about if Girls’ Generation and Girl’s Day joined you? That’d be great,” Lee replied, “It might have a better effect.”

Lee previously helped draw public attention to labor issues last February by taking part in the “yellow envelope campaign” to help the Ssangyong union and Korean Railway Workers’ Union after they were hit with management lawsuits claiming damages.

Meanwhile, support for the Ssangyong workers’ smokestack protest continued to grow as the protest reached its fifth day in the bitter December cold. Actor Kim Eui-sung, 49, and cartoonist Kang Do-ha, 45, staged relay one-person demonstrations in support at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, while philosopher Slavoj Zizek set a message of support from Slovenia, calling the smokestack a “beacon to the rest of the world.”

By Lee Jae-hoon, staff reporter

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