KHMU Newsletter No. 14. November 10, 2020

The Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union’s Election for Leadership will take place between November 17 and 19. Na Soon-ja, the incumbent President will run for the election again which will be her third time running now.

The 9^th leadership election will take place from November 17 through 19. According to the candidacy registration result on Oct 28, a single candidate for each position threw their hat into the ring: Na Soon-ja for President, Jang Won-seok for Chief Vice President and Song Keum-hee for Secretary General.

In 11 branch head elections run in parallel with the leadership election, most of the branches had only one candidate but two are expected to see competitions. For one regional branch, no one run for the election.

“I will open the robust future! – The KHMU near you will defend you! The KHMU is a power connecting us all!” was the catch phrase of the candidate Na.

In her statement of candidacy, the candidate Na pointed out, “COVID1-19 revealed such poor safety net for employment and medical system as well as weak conditions of the Korean public medical services and personnel shortage. Physicians’ collective refusal to work reaffirmed the shortage of medical doctors and reality of illegal medical practices due to the low staffing level.” She also added, “We can’t delay implementation of the Act on Health and Medical Personnel and social dialogue any longer. As the first industrial union, the KHMU will lead the journey toward stronger public services in the medical field, always proposing the most relevant agenda of the health and medical sector.”

The candidate Na’s core election pledge covers a variety of industry-level collective bargaining plans and social dialogue strategy: collective bargaining committees will be established in each field unit to accomplish standardized collective agreement at every medical institution, and systematic negotiations at both central and occupational levels will be set up to drive legislation and normalization. Especially as the year 2021 will be the first year of her tenure, she said she would prioritize “rights to rest when sick and rights to safe labor” through ‘COVID-19 Joint Collective Bargaining Fight’ while driving social dialogue for all one million health workers to accomplish safety net of employment and medical services in post-COVID 19 era.

In addition, she also promised to create a workplace where workers proudly work by fighting for upgraded working conditions and establishing health personnel center as well as criteria of personnel by occupations with improved night shift labor practices, shift system and 36 hour work-week system. Empowered union whose voices are reflected in the health and medical policy making processes, proposals to develop and improve public hospitals with special purposes, national and private hospitals, regional medical centers, small and medium sized hospitals, mental hospitals, rehabilitation centers and care centers, and all general fights to strengthen the public nature of public medical services are under her pledges.

Besides, she said that she would try her best to strategically organize additional200,000 workers and politically empower health workers, stop the retrogressive revision of the labor law and accomplish three basic labor law argued by Jeon Tae IL, while promoting non-contact union activities, fostering executive union members to connect old and new generations, coming up with various and creative activities that union members can directly participate in, and give stronger voices to the field.

President Na Soon-ja used to serve as one of the major five union presidents between 2009 and 2011. She is a nurse for Ewha Womans University Hospital and was elected as the KHMU President in August 2017. And this is her third time to run for the presidency.

The year 2023 marks KHMU’s 25^th anniversary of foundation and ROK Presidential election and regional election are expected in 2022. The KHMU president candidate will take a campaign tour from November 3, visiting each region. Followingly, from November 17 to 18, union members will vote for the new leadership. During the same period of time, other voting process for branch heads and 10 regional heads will be going on.

The elected president and branch heads’ tenure will begin from January 1^st 2021 and last for the following three years.

Meanwhile, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) will also get into election for the President, Chief Vice President and Secretary General on November 28. The voting period will end on December 4.^. This year, a total of four teams run for the election.

The tenure of the KCTU leadership lasts for three years from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2023. And the number of voters is 957,920. Ballot count will begin at 6:00 pm on December 4 and in 5-6 days, the elected team will be announced. In case that no team achieves a majority of the voters, the top two teams will have to compete again in the run-off election which will take place between December 17 and 23.