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.
The KHMU conducted a labor-management joint declaration ceremony for responding to the climate crisis.
by 선전홍보실장 posted Nov 29, 2021 Replies 0