By Kim Dong Eun (mikkola@korea.ac.kr) 

On May 31, the labor union made an officialannouncement on the rupture of negotiation. According to the announcement, starting from February until May, the unionstrived to improve the public welfare system and the working conditions of employees. Intotal, the union tried to make six negotiation affairs in order to discuss the major issues that existed. However, the labor union and the school could not find a compromisingpoint, since the school tried to extend the negotiation terms without givingany practical solutions.

The labor union claimed that “school did not find a yielding point, and wanted one-sided submission of the laborunion. Any additional negotiation would be meaningless.” 

According to the announcement, the schoolpresident made a promise that he will try to solve the problem within a monthduring the February negotiation. He further claimed that “the school will tryto consider the improvement on employees working conditions prior to thebusiness rationalization.” Furthermore, the labor union condemned the school for not resolving the problem associated with unequal wage, retirement age andthe working hours. The union claimed that “this negotiation was the most inefficientand incoherent negotiation in the 27 year of labor union history.” 

Due to these factors, the labor union claimed they will be starting a legal dispute against the school starting from this day. They further apologizedfor the unavoidable compute between the school and the labor union.