Non-Regular School Cafeteria and Care Workers Go on Strike Today

The members of the National Union of Non-regular Workers in Schools held a surprise demonstration calling for Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs and Minister of Education Lee Ju-ho to provide measures on the lung cancer among school cafeteria workers at the first meeting to discuss innovation for the capacity of teachers at the Korea Institute of Educational Facility Safety in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul on March 30, a day before a general strike on March 31. Afterwards, they shouted slogans outside the building. Seong Dong-hun

Non-regular workers in schools will go on a one-day strike on March 31 demanding improvements to their wage system and specific measures to resolve the lung cancer issue among cafeteria workers. Care workers and workers who work to provide school meals will also take part in the strike, so the education authority has prepared convenience foods.

According to the National Solidarity of Non-regular Workers in Schools (Solidarity), which organized the strike, over twenty-thousand union members are expected to take part in Friday’s strike. In the strike on November 25, 2022, 21,470 workers who accounted for 12.7% of all non-regular workers in schools (168,625) took part in the strike. The Solidarity expects a similar or slightly bigger number of members to take part on Friday. The workers will march from City Hall Station in Seoul to the Office of the President in Yongsan and simultaneously hold a rally in front of the metropolitan and provincial offices of education nationwide.

The education authority prepared for the absence of workers in schools due to the strike. They simplified school lunches according to the percentage of cafeteria workers participating in the strike and replaced meals with bread and milk or asked students to bring their lunches. As for after-school care, they sent a letter to parents notifying them of the strike and had schools assign their teaching staff as much as possible.

In the strike last November, 3,027 schools among the 12,570 schools nationwide that provide school meals were not able to serve school lunches. Among them, 165 schools did not provide meals due to tests or other school affairs. After-school care in elementary schools was suspended in 701 classrooms (5.6%), among the 12,526 classrooms nationwide.

An official from the education ministry said, “The metropolitan and provincial offices of education will jointly respond and thoroughly prepare for the strike to prevent any inconvenience or lack experienced by the students and parents at the start of the school year.”

The Solidarity has been negotiating with the education authority since last September asking for a 2.7% increase in basic wages compared to the wage for the Type-1 education civil servant (nutritionist, librarian, etc.), an increase in long-term service awards and holiday bonuses, and a unified wage system. The government and the offices of education presented an alternative, raising the basic wage by 2% from the wage of Type-2 workers (cook, care worker, etc.), whose wages are lower than Type-1 workers. This was the first time that they continued to negotiate into the new school year unable to reach an agreement on wages. The Solidarity is also demanding more specific measures in the government’s response to the occupational risk of lung cancer among cafeteria workers, which the government released on March 14. They are calling for restrictions on the number of students a worker has to feed and for the government to hire more workers.