By Kim Tae-jong
Unionized cleaners and guards at three universities in Seoul ― Korea University, Yonsei University and Ewha Womans University ― Tuesday simultaneously went on strike, calling for an increase to their hourly wages.
The joint strike by the three unions, which are members of the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions, came as a provincial labor committee failed to arbitrate between the unions and the schools in the final round of negotiations on Monday.
The major difference is the hourly wage ― workers demand it should increase to 5,180 won ($4.64), while the schools are sticking to 4,320 won, the legal minimum hourly wage.
The workers also demand the universities should improve their working conditions.
“These schools should more aggressively tackle the issue, fully taking responsibility as an employer,” said an official from the KCTU.
But universities expressed difficulties in raising the hourly wage, citing financial hardships plaguing the schools.
“It’s hard to meet their demands since budget is limited and it’s a new semester when expenses increase,” an official from Korea University said.
The strike is shedding light once more on the poor working conditions of the non-permanent cleaning staff at universities.
Their strike came several weeks after cleaners and guards at Hongik University held a sit-in protest for 49 days at the school campus in Seoul for similar reasons ending in February.
The protest stopped after a tentative agreement with their employers to increase the hourly wage to 4,450 won for cleaners and 3,560 won for guards. The previous hourly wages were 4,120 won for cleaners, lower than the legal minimum wage of 4,320 won.