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Yonsei University cleaning workers demonstrate on Jan. 16 after taking over the university’s main building in the Seodaemun District of Seoul to protest restructuring of the workforce. (by Baek So-ah

Cleaning workers at Yonsei University launched an indefinite occupation of the school’s main building on Jan. 16 to protest restructuring. The occupation comes at a time when cleaning staff restructuring issues have surfaced at several South Korea universities, including Korea University, Hongik University, Dongguk University, and Soongsil University.

Around 100 workers with the Yonsei University branch of the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union (KPTU) western Seoul chapter began an indefinite occupation that morning of the first-floor lobby in the Yonsei University main building in Seoul’s Seodaemun district. Workers held signs with message such as “Who did the work to give you a clean and safe Yonsei University?”

They currently plan to continue the occupation until new employees are hired to replace 31 workers who reached retirement age last year. Late last year, Yonsei University’s cleaning agency brought into student workers on short three-hour periods to fill the places left after full-time cleaning workers retired.

The cleaning workers urged Yonsei University to pursue a resolution as the agency’s employer.

“This whole thing became an issue because Yonsei University reduced the amount paid to the agency, so Yonsei University should accept responsibility,” said Choi Da-hye, deputy organizational chief for the KPTU western Seoul chapter.

Kim Jong-hyeon, a 24-year-old economics student at the university, said it was “unfair to restructure the cleaning staff because of the minimum wage hike.” Kim added that he planned to “show solidarity until the issue is resolved.”

A 64-year-old cleaning worker surnamed Choi who has worked at Yonsei for over 11 years said, “These people who claim to have learned so much are unwilling to pay a little over one million won (US$940) in cleaning worker salaries.”

“We’re grateful to the students for their support,” Choi said.

Blue House Senior Secretary to the President for Jobs Ban Jang-sik and Secretary for Employment and Labor Hwang Duk-soon previously visited Yonsei University to meet with cleaning and security workers, but the school remains adamant.

“Not replacing the retired workers was a minimum way of cutting costs without causing damages,” the school said.

“The agency’s decision to hire part-time workers has nothing to do with the school,” it added.

By Jung Su-kyung, staff reporter

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