On the 17th, President Moon Jae-in visited the late Baek Ki-wan, head of the Institute for Unification Studies. Immediately after President Moon’s visit to the slum, the contents of the conversation between the president and the bereaved, the white handkerchief handed by the bereaved to the president, and the book of the deceased were delivered through the media.
There is a scene hidden here. It is the message of “the tears of the blood of non-regular workers” and “where is the respect for labor” heard by non-regular workers. Kim So-yeon, the executive director of the funeral committee, the chairman of the operation committee of irregular workers’ house’Gguljam’, joint representative Kim Soo-eok and Yoo Heung-hee, executive chairman of the temporary worker’s house, and Sung-ho Park, former CEO of Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Co. Was engraved.
The situation at that time was shared on social media with a few pictures. The situation where President Moon passed by the non-regular workers watching the Chumoribon was captured in the camera of Noh Sun-taek, who was at the scene. The funeral committee distributed some of the photos in the form of a press release, saying, “President Jae-in Moon paused for a moment to see the words written on the paper and then left.”
However, in most media reports, this scene could not be found or was not treated heavily. There was no corresponding content in the’pool article’ shared by the Blue House to reporters. Usually, the president’s disclosure schedule is shared by some reporters as representatives, and then the contents are shared with all reporters. In this day’s distribution, the situation was recorded from 9:17 when President Moon arrived on the third floor of the funeral hall of Seoul National University Hospital, where there was an empty place, until 9:27 when he finished giving a bow to his bereaved family, but the appearance of irregular workers was not included.
Co-CEO Kim Soo-eok, who heard the memorial ribbon, told Media Today, “Our story didn’t come out well in the media. I would like to tell you what kind of mind the non-regular workers stood,” he explained the situation at the time. He said, “After hearing the news of President Moon Jae-in’s condolences in the morning, I thought that as a non-regular worker, it should not be overlooked. The place where Paik Ki-wan lived for the last 10 years was the site of the struggle for non-regular workers and dismissed workers. “Four years have passed since President Moon Jae-in spoke of’the era of zero non-regular workers’, the number of non-regular workers continues to increase or continue to die while working. It is a situation. I wanted to see the President, and I wanted to ask’Where is the respect for the labor promised by the President?’”
Representative Kim said, “Because it was a funeral hall, I was standing silently holding a ribbon, but the President did not even pay attention. Even after leaving the vacant place, I just passed by,’President Moon Jae-in, can’t you see the bloody tears of irregular workers? ‘Where have you gone, respect for work?’ He looked up, stopped, and saw the memorial we were holding. “Where is your respect for labor, do you see the tears of blood for irregular workers?” I asked again, but I only heard the story and passed by.” He asked for dialogue by forming a delegation of 100 non-regular workers in 2018, when Moon took office one year, but there was no response for four years. But the people President Moon met were rather chaebols.”
He also pointed out that it is “sorry” for President Moon’s remarks in commemoration of Ki-wan Baek, “I wish he would leave it to his juniors and fly much more freely.” CEO Kim said, “I shouldn’t have to do anything like’I will try my best’ even once, even if there is a blank word to the question that a non-regular worker is desperately asking. He said, “What I confirmed by seeing the president passing by without a word of mouth was that the Moon Jae-in administration’s position and attitude toward irregular workers.” He continued, “I felt that the last words of’Labor Liberation Baek Ki-wan’ left by Paik Gi-wan just before his death were saying that workers must change the world with their own power. Looking at the back of President Moon, who doesn’t say anything, I thought that the irregular workers of the’Nonamegi World’ left by Paik would definitely make it.”
On the afternoon of the 17th, when President Moon visited, a memorial march is scheduled for Paik Ki-wan. Kim So-yeon, executive director of the funeral committee, who also listened to the memorial service, said, “At least if you come to a condolence, you have to think about what Paik Ki-wan would mean. It would have been nice if I had to mention a word.” Chairman Kim said, “(This day’s march) is a march in honor of the teacher’s will by dismissed workers struggling with irregular workers, and bereaved families are also coming. If the teacher is healthy or alive, the first place to look is for workers’ agricultural growth. It is a day of marching with the mind of having the teacher Young-jung and following the will and fighting hard. On that day, the president came.”
Chairman Kim said, “While workers have talked a lot about’Please listen to us, what are we going to do?’, in reality, workers are being fired. In particular, the president talked about job security. In the coronavirus situation, they said that they would not have fired workers, and said’respect for labor,’ but workers are being fired on the basis of corona excuses for creating a union. Still, irregular workers in the public sector are caught in tricks such as switching to subsidiary arms contracts, are fired, are still at the minimum wage, and are subject to discrimination.” He urged, “We need to accurately see that reality and solve it.”
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