[Interview] A long battle of spent youth, lost time and departed friends

Posted on : 2018-07-23 16:07 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Unjustly dismissed KTX crew member reflects on the battle of the last 14 years
Kim Seung-ha
Kim Seung-ha

In 2004, she was a 26-year-old crew member for KTX. Fourteen years later, she is the mother of two children, an eight-year-old and six-year-old. The entire period in between – from her late twenties all the way through her thirties – was spent in a battle for her job.

When she first went to work, KORAIL promised she would be converted to full-time status within two years. The promise went unkept. In Mar. 2006, crew members staged a strike to demand their direct employment; two months later, 280 of them were let go all at once. The dismissed workers set up tents in front of Seoul Station and climbed on a nearby pylon for an aerial protest. In a lawsuit demanding confirmation of their worker status, the first and second courts sided with them – but in 2015, the Supreme Court abruptly sided with the company.

One despondent crew member committed suicide, leaving a three-year-old child behind. This past May, evidence surfaced suggesting the National Court Administration attempted a “transaction” with the Blue House over the ruling of the KTX cases during Yang Sung-tae’s tenure as Chief Justice.

“The toughest time was right after the Supreme Court decision,” recalled Oh Mi-seon in an interview with The Hankyoreh on July 22. Now 39, Oh served as leader of the KTX crew members’ chapter of the Korean Railway Workers’ Union (KRWU) between 2007 and 2009. At the time, the former workers were asked to repay the four years’ worth of back wages for their “period of improper dismissal” that they had received after their previous court victory, along with 15 percent per year in legally calculated interest – amounting to around 100 million won (US$89,000) in total.

“It was tremendously difficult having all that debt all of a sudden. I would get provisional attachment notices, and they said it could all happen without prior notice. Whenever the mail came, I couldn’t sleep. I feel sorry for my family.”

Of the 280 dismissed workers, 33 have continued the battle since then. Their history of strike involvement has been an obstacle to finding new work, and they have been unable to hide the many years of gaps in their resumes.

“A few of them work as freelance lecturers, but most of them have struggle financially because they can’t earn money,” Oh said, adding that she had one colleague who would take medications every time she took a KTX train.

Fortunately, Oh has had her family to provide support. Her parents took care of her without complaint. When the direct employment agreement was announced on the evening of July 21, her husband was there to comfort her. “You really fought hard,” he told her. The same night, she learned for the first time that her future husband came to watch her from a distance while she was holding an aerial protest on a Seoul Station pylon in Aug. 2008. At the time, she had forbidden any “consolation visits” from her then-boyfriend – fearful she might lose heart.

“Some of the married ones had husbands who opposed having their pictures in the media, and there was one whose father-in-law said it was his ‘dying wish’ that she give up. They weren’t able to participate much as a result.”

In a previous interview, Oh was quoted as saying, “When I look back at my twenties, all I see is myself in a sweat-soaked T-shirt with a hat pushed down on my head.” At the time, fears that everything might be in vain had begun creeping in, she explained.

”You don’t get repaid for time that has passed

“I always carried around that label as a ‘dismissed crew member,’ but when I look back on it down, I spent just two years and two months out of my life working as a crew member. You don’t get repaid for time that has passed. I’d imagined that I’d be this smart office worker in my twenties, and I never had any of that. I still get envious when I see people walking around with company ID cards dangling around their necks.”

When asked if she was happy with the agreement, Oh replied, “The ‘time of struggle’ isn’t over yet.”

“For the past 12 years, we’ve been talking about how it’s only right for the company to directly hire crew members to perform duties that involve people’s lives and safety, and unfortunately they wouldn’t listen to us. But I do think it’s very meaningful that they are converting the irregular workers to regular status.”

“It’s been such a long battle, and we needed to meet in the middle,” she continued.

“I think the first step is to go back to the company and fight for a transfer to a new position.”

Oh also stressed, “As one of the biggest victims of judicial misconduct during the Park Geun-hye administration, I plan to keep battling until the truth comes to light – if only to restore the reputation of the friend I lost.”

By Park Ki-yong, staff reporter

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

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