KHMU INFO<10> August 5, 2014

The KHMU Staged the second round of strike from July 22to 26.

As many as 600,000 citizens joined the online signature campaign on July 22 alone, demonstrating unprecedented support to this anti-privatization campaigns

 

○ The public also showed overwhelming support for the second round of strikes and all-out protests against the government’s healthcare privatization plan, which the KHMU President Yoo Ji-hyun had led for five days: from July 22 to 26.

 

 

○ At 2:00 pm, July 22, the KHMU, with some 6,000 union members, organized a strike rally demanding an end to healthcare privatization,  to enact the healthcare privatization prevention law, to cancel the plan to normalize fake public organizations, and reopen the public medical institution for working families: JinJu Medical Center. They also marched to Seoul City Hall Square and joined a general strike rally organized by KCTU (Korean Confederation of Trade Unions).

 

 

 

○ The unionist protesters held an evening cultural event and slept at the side of the Han river. On July 23rd, around 3,000 union members staged a protest before the offices of the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Planning and Strategy. From July 24th onward, the union continued to protest before the National Assembly and at the Seoul Railway Station Square.

 

 

○ The KHMU strike is particularly meaningful because it is an industrial action for a political cause to stop healthcare privatization and was joined by the greatest number of unionists since 2004.

 

○ Popular support for the KHMU strike was explosive. And the search term "healthcare privatization" ranked 1st in hits in many Internet portal sites. Such intense attention to this issue continued with the anti-healthcare privatization signature campaign.  

 

○ Since February this year, the KHMU collected a total of 650,000 offline signatures from the One Million Signature Campaign against Healthcare Privatization. But, on July 22^nd alone, as many as 600,000 citizens joined in the campaign on the Internet, the total number both online and offline reaching two million at the end of July.

 

○ A posting on revised enforcement rules of medical law on the website of the Ministry of Health and Welfare was read 880,000 times and 600,000 times after the amendments were posted. The number of hits averages 400 to 2,500, but for this issue, the hit rate recorded the highest ever, paralyzing the web server.

 

 ○ A poll revealed that 88% of respondents opposed healthcare privatization plans that the government is currently pursuing, which is 18% higher than the June survey conducted by the KHMU.

 

 

 

 

○ Nonetheless, the government is determined to enforce the privatization plans in the healthcare sector. Hence, to respond to the government's moves, the KHMU plans to develop the third round of general rallies from the end of August to early September.

 

 

To find more information, go to the KHMU’s website

☞ http://bogun.nodong.org/english/

☞ KBS News http://youtu.be/C9EhxwX9t_M

☞ KHMU News http://youtu.be/nFuTnqP-zRc