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Sign White House petition on precarious work in Korea

17 January, 2013Korean Metal Workers’ Union petition the U.S. White House to demand that Chung Mong-Koo, chairman of Hyundai Motor Company, accept the Supreme Court ruling to grant permanent employment to precarious workers.

On 22 July 2010 the Korean Supreme Court made a verdict in favour of a Hyundai Motor subcontract worker’s suit, submitted by Choi Byeong-seung in 2005, ruling the worker be promoted to a permanent employee status. Hyundai again appealed the landmark Supreme Court ruling of 2010, but Choi Byeong-seung won the final and definitive decision on 23 February 2012.

This decision established a precedent for change in the Korean automotive industry, which continues to make extensive use of a subcontracted workforce to extract additional profits. Now Hyundai is claiming the decision only relates to the individual worker and refuses to apply the principle to other workers in the exact same positions at Choi Byeong-seung.

The precarious workers have been carrying out strikes at Hyundai Motor in Korea and protest actions, symbolized by the aerial protest on top of a pylon in front of Hyundai Motor plant in Ulsan demanding implementation of the court decision: http://www.industriall-union.org/korean-workers-stage-protest-against-hyundai

Please sign the petition to ask the White House to take a stand on Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Mong-Koo’s non-compliance with the Supreme Court precarious workers’ ruling.

If 25,000 signatures are collected between 10 January 2013 and 8 February 2013, the Obama administration will need to take a stand on this crucial struggle of precarious workers to seek accountability from the transnational corporations using illegal work arrangements to circumvent responsibility for their employees.

The Petition to White House can be accessed at http://wh.gov/PVPf with additional detailed instructions available at KMWU website http://kmwu.kr/en/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/5a0169504d5b0bd403b390d4837b85702.pdf