Often, we look at past events and label them as "past" events. However, all the events in the world are interrelated. Therefore, history is always a cause of today and the future. "There is no future for the people who forgot the past." is a famous sentence in Korea. Therefore, the labor movement and labor union issues are essential topics in modern Korea.
On January 19th, our learning cluster group went to the Jeon Tae-il Memorial. Jeon Tae-il is a Korean sewing laborer and an activist who self-immolated. His action was a protest against a society that did not follow the Labor Standards Act at the time. The third floor of the memorial building had a form of an exhibition, while labor unions of different companies or occupations used other floors as offices. We looked around the exhibition with a docent. The exhibition had two main parts: his life and how society changed after his death.
According to the exhibition, he was a wonderful person who was passionate about sacrificing himself for young girls. Unfortunately, they were the most abandoned ones who were discriminated against even by their own family for their male siblings. His death was a critical event that gathered social attention to the labor movement, while activists mainly focused on the democratic movement. His death is considered one of the leading causes of the democratic-labor action and the national wise labor movement.
Therefore, Jeon Tae-il is one of the figures that people should remember. However, in this journal, I want to focus more on the labor movement that is happening nowadays in Korea, especially the SPC labor union and the boycott movement. In 2022, on October 15th, a female laborer working in a sandwich sauce factory died due to mechanical entrapment. This death was a preventable disaster. According to coworkers, the factory purposely and illegally removed the safety device for "efficiency." Also, coworkers needed to continue working after she was dead. Therefore, they pushed her lifeless body to the side and continue worked.
However, this was not the start or the most significant accident. In 2021 there were 147 industrial accidents. Unfortunately, SPC is one of the most influential companies in South Korea that organizes Baskin Robbins, Paris Baguette, Dunkin's donuts, Samlip, and more. As people who chose and continuously boycotted these companies, we should consciously avoid buying their products. Not whenever we see them, but when there is an alternative or substitute to the extent that we can.
We will all become workers and laborers. After graduating from university, grad school, or any time in life, we will become laborers. If we do not support and unite with the abounded laborers, we will soon become in the position of these abounded laborers. If it is not ourselves, we will at least lose the people who we care about and love. Therefore, if you cannot support them because of emphasis, at least do it for yourself.
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