hankyoreh

Kim Mi-suk (left)

“Yong-gyun! The next time I see you, I think I won’t feel quite so guilty. I still feel extremely guilty, but even so I hope you’ll go easy on your mom,” the woman said through her tears.

The woman, named Kim Mi-suk, is the mother of Kim Yong-gyun, an irregular worker at a subcontractor for the Taean Power Station, operated by Korean Western Power, who died in a tragic industrial accident.

It was Dec. 27, and South Korea’s National Assembly had just passed a full revision of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which has been dubbed the “Kim Yong-gyun Law.”

Kim had been nervously watching the debate over the revised bill in the National Assembly. When the bill finally passed, she began to cry and bowed low toward the Speaker of the National Assembly to express her gratitude.

After the National Assembly’s full session was over, Kim met Rep. Lee Hae-chan, leader of the Democratic Party, and embraced him. “I’m so happy and grateful,” she told him.

“The bill was passed because you came out and stayed with us until the end,” Lee said.

After news broke on Thursday afternoon that the ruling and opposition parties had reached an agreement about the details of the revised bill that would block the “outsourcing of risk,” Kim met with the Hankyoreh. “I think we’ve taken a step forward on the task that Yong-gyun left us. I hope this will become a world where our sons and daughters can be safe at work,” she said.

After hearing the news about the agreement, Kim made some remarks while standing in front of the meeting room of the Environment and Labor Committee’s Employment and Labor Subcommittee. “Even though my son wasn’t able to enjoy [the protection of this law], I’m really grateful to now be able to hold my head up a little higher before my son,” Kim said.

“When Mom sees you, she’s going to tell you that you helped save other people’s lives,” Kim said, speaking to her son.

Kim maintained her post in front of that meeting room on Dec. 24, when the review of the revision to the law began in the subcommittee; on Dec. 26, when the subcommittee convened after Christmas; and on Dec. 27. She explained that she was motivated by her earnest conviction that no one else should lose their lives as her son had.

“I should have asked Yong-gyun more details about what kind of work he was doing and made him get out of such a dangerous job, but I failed to do so. My sense of guilt and remorse made me cling so desperately to passing the revision of the Occupational Safety and Health Act,” Kim said.

“My determination to prevent any more sons and daughters who are working in even worse environments from losing their lives brought me to the National Assembly,” Kim added.

Watching the debate about the revision of the law in the National Assembly was an agonizing time for Kim. “I felt terribly anxious because at first it seemed like an agreement would be reached and then it seemed like it wouldn’t,” she said.

And then on Thursday morning, Kim achieved a measure of calm before heading to the National Assembly. “I told myself, listen, if this doesn’t work out, I can just keep going out there until it does,” she said.

In the end, Kim was able to keep her promise to her son on Thursday evening – the promise that she would keep watch in the gallery at the National Assembly until the “Kim Yong-gyun Bill” became law.

Moving forward, Kim is planning to take part in the activity of the 100 Representatives of Irregular Workers Calling for Dialogue with the President, which her son had been part of before his death. The group seeks to ensure the safety of industrial workplaces and to convert irregular workers to regular workers.

By Kim Kyu-nam, Lee Jung-ae and Seo Young-ji, staff reporters

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