Friday’s strike by non-regular workers at school cafeterias was disturbing, as it was an attempt to hold children hostage to get job security and better working conditions.
Due to the strike, more than 900 of the 9,647 public elementary, middle, and high schools in Seoul, Incheon, Daejeon, Gwangju, Daegu and Gyeonggi Province could not provide meals to students.
Most schools did not experience too much inconvenience as they prepared for the preannounced strike. They told students to bring their own lunches and provided bread to those who could not bring any food. Some schools canceled afternoon classes.
But the problem is that the workers plan to stage a second and third strike if their demands are not met. Some 16,000 workers participated In Friday’s strike. The turnout is expected to increase in the future strikes.
The strike was organized by an alliance of non-regular school workers, which included nutritionists, food service workers, librarians and day-care teachers. Food service workers account for about 20,000 of the alliance’s 150,000 members.
The alliance, controlled by the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions, demands that its members be converted into regular workers and be paid, like government employees, based on salary schedules.
According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, it would take 1.3 trillion won to apply the salary schedule system to all members of the alliance.
These demands are excessive, to say the least. The government’s education budget is limited. Furthermore, it is severely strained by the expanded free lunch program and other welfare plans.
For instance, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education had to drastically cut next year’s spending on upgrading school facilities due to these programs. It could not allocate a penny to projects aimed at improving toilets, air conditioning and heating systems, fire-fighting facilities and classroom floors.
The strike by food service workers has called into question the wisdom of the present system in which each school operates its own cooking facilities and hires workers to supply meals directly to students.
Previously, many schools had the meals supplied by food companies. The present system has helped temporary school workers unite around food service workers.
The school lunch program is intended to ensure that not a single student skips lunch. It has been turned into a universal program in order to avoid stigmatizing students from low-income families.
But what is the use of all these efforts if schools can’t provide meals to students due to the collective action of food service workers? The government should ensure that children’s education is not interrupted by school workers.
