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Kim Yong-hui has been holding an aerial protest on top of a CCTV tower at Gangnam Station intersection for 71 days as of Aug. 19. (provided by supporters of Kim)

Overseas Koreans have released a statement voicing support for a labor action by a 60-year-old worker named Kim Yong-hui.

Kim has been holding an aerial protest atop a CCTV tower at Gangnam Station intersection in Seoul for more than two months now, demanding an apology from Samsung for its suppression of union activities.

Cho Seon-a, who lives in Canberra, Australia, is one of 271 individuals and 55 organizations in 22 countries around the world who released a statement on Aug. 19 — the 71st day since Kim Yong-hui went aloft — calling on Samsung to take measures to repair Kim’s reputation and reinstate him at his job.

These groups and individuals, all supporters of the candlelight rallies that brought down the Park Geun-hye administration, have set up a joint action committee seeking a solution for workers unjustly fired by Samsung. Another terminated worker is Lee Jae-yong, who is holding a sit-in (this one on the ground, not in the air) for similar reasons as Kim.

The signatories of the statement describe the investigation of the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014 and the campaign for the resignation of former president Park Geun-hye as a formative experience. “Our groups have been brought together again by a sense of urgency, by our refusal to idly endure a horrible reality in which unimaginable labor oppression is left completely unpunished, in which there are no signs of progress toward a solution, or of effort in that direction, even under the Moon administration, which has pledged to create a society in which workers are respected,” the statement said.

“Samsung’s unlawful and inhuman efforts to bust unions through kidnapping, violence, blandishment, cash incentives, and hired thugs are being used to squeeze out the sweat and blood of workers not only in Korea but around the world. Kim Yong-hui and Lee Jae-yong, both fired from their jobs at Samsung, stand on the front lines of the struggle to end that vicious cycle, a struggle that we regard as being the nexus of resistance against Samsung’s unlawful union-busting and its refusal to allow union formation,” the committee, said, explaining the motivation beyond its statement.

The first matters addressed in the statement were the fact that Samsung and the South Korean police had colluded in seizing the body of Yeom Ho-seok (the deceased head of the Yangsan section of the Samsung Electronics Service chapter of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union) and the fact that Samsung Electronics has oppressed local attempts to form unions during its expansion into Vietnam.

“At this very moment, when a worker is putting his health and life on the line in the struggle to draw attention to Samsung’s true nature, more people are getting worried about Samsung’s weak performance and a crisis in the national economy. It’s ironic that Samsung, a company that stands on the front line of labor oppression, is the beneficiary of the recent campaign to buy Korean and boycott Japanese products,” the statement said.

The statement also urged the South Korean government, led by President Moon Jae-in, to push Samsung to apologize so that Kim can return safely to the ground. “We would like to ask how you can create a society in which workers are respected while you turn a blind eye to Samsung’s ‘outstanding’ labor oppression. We would like to ask why you aren’t making use of your globally admired skill at negotiation in these workers’ agonizing struggle,” the statement said.

Kim says he was abducted and beaten by Samsung, and finally fired, for attempting to set up a labor union while working there. He began his aerial protest atop the tower on June 10, asking the company to give him a sincere apology and reinstate him to his position. He went on a 56-day hunger strike but had to call it off on July 27, because of deteriorating health.

By Jeon Jong-hwi, staff reporter

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