The KHMU conducted a labor-management joint declaration ceremony for responding to the climate crisis.

On the afternoon of November 17, the KHMU (Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union) held a “labor-management joint declaration ceremony for responding to the climate crisis” in the auditorium of the health union’s hall. A total of 102 busines sites attended the joint declaration ceremony, including 70 medical institutions that participated in industry-level central negotiations.

The labor and management jointly said, “Only when the earth is healthy, can people be also healthy,” emphasizing, “To make the earth healthy requires the government’s actions and endeavor: bold climate policy implementation, preparation of measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by industry, job stability, and overall expansion of the social safety net. It is also necessary to spread social awareness of the severity of the crisis and to create a medical system that responds to the increasingly serious infectious disease crisis.”

In addition, confirming that the climate crisis is the greatest risk factor that threatens the health and life of the people, the labor and management committed to “the establishment of a medical system to protect the health and life of the people from the climate crisis and infectious disease threats; and to creation of low-carbon medical institutions in line with the government’s carbon-free policy for a sustainable society.”

In the joint declaration, ▲ the labor and management demanded that the government take active steps to establish a health care system that is unshakable by any new infectious disease and secure sufficient health and medical personnel. ▲ the labor and management pledged to provide education on climate responses to the entire health workers in their hospitals at least once per year, and ▲ carry out campaign activities for patients and caregivers. Also, they committed ▲to preparing measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by medical institutions to realize low-carbon medical facilities and ▲ to mapping out detailed measures for each business site, such as guidelines for responding to climate crisis that all workers should follow in practice.

<Health and Medical Sector’s Labor-Management Joint Declaration for Responding to the Climate Crisis>

Climate change, which is getting serious day by day, has reached a situation that threatens the survival of mankind. Extreme weather events such as heat waves, storms, and floods caused by climate change not only take thousands of lives, but also lead to an increase in heat-related diseases, air and water pollution, nutritional deficiencies due to food shortage, a new infectious disease pandemic, and the collapse of social systems. It leads to deterioration of health and threat to survival. The climate crisis will have a fatal adverse effect on the health, life and overall life of the people. The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that the health crisis, which is getting worse due to climate change, will be more deadly than the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to threaten humanity for a longer period of time.

When the earth is healthy, people can be healthy too. The health of the planet depends on how we act. Actions needed now for a healthy planet are the government's bold climate policy implementation, industry-specific greenhouse gas reduction measures, job stability and social safety net expansion, and social awareness of the seriousness of the climate crisis. And it is also essential to create a medical system that responds to the increasingly serious infectious disease crisis.

Recently, new infectious diseases such as SARS, H1N1 flu virus, Ebola, MERS, and COVID-19 are appearing periodically, and the transmission speed is high while the fatality rate is increasing. Nonetheless, only ad-hoc measures were taken at the early stage of COVID-19 pandemic, hence, medical sites had to go through lots of trial and error in confusion when caring for a rapidly increasing number of patients.

In the process of struggling to protect the lives of the people with a weak infectious disease response system and with insufficient manpower for the past two years, labor and management in the health and medical industry realized that the climate crisis is a crisis of human survival and a crisis of health care.

Even now, the government should step in and push for a policy to build a medical system in which the public and patients can visit medical institutions with confidence even when a new infectious disease crisis comes. To that end, the government should not spare budget support.

On the other hand, the medical industry has its unique industrial characteristic of patient treatment, hence, it inevitably consumes a lot of energy. Labor and management in the health and medical industry will develop climate crisis response activities and practices to transform the institutions into a low-carbon settings but in consideration of the nature of medical services. At the same time, they will also socially promote the severity of the climate crisis by conducting campaigns for patient and caregivers.

Confirming that the climate crisis is the biggest risk factor that threatens the health and life of the people, we, the labor and management in the health and medical industry, declare that we will strive to establish a medical system to protect the health and life of the people from the climate crisis and infectious disease crises and create a low-carbon medical institution in line with the government’s carbon-free policy for a sustainable society.

1) Labor and management in the health and medical industry demand that the government take an active role in establishing a health care system that is not shaken by any new infectious disease and securing sufficient medical personnel.

2) Labor and management in the health and medical industry conduct climate crisis response training for all health workers in their workplaces at least once a year, and jointly conduct campaigns for patients and caregivers.

3) Labor and management in the health and medical industry ▲ prepare measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by medical institution to realize low-carbon medical facilities and ▲ prepare and implement detailed measures and guidelines for each business site to respond to climate crisis.