The following letter was sent to the president of the Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union following the September 12 start of a strike of members from the Chonnam National University Hospital.
September 17, 2018
President Na Sun Ja
Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union
10 Beodeunaru-ro 16-gil, Yeongdeungpo-gu
Seoul, 0723, South Korea
The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) represents nearly 200,000 unionized nurses in Canada. We have been following your struggle and we stand with the Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union (KHMU) and the strong members at the Chonnam National University Hospital (CNUH).
Our collective struggle for safe patient care is what brings us together as proud members of Global Nurses United. Our belief in fair working hours, safe working conditions and respect within our workplaces is what makes us strong unions. Your membership showed this powerfully by voting 93% in favour of striking to achieve progress on these critical factors.
Industrial actions are always a last resort and always difficult, but for health care workers it is even more of a dilemma. Yet we know that strong working conditions are precisely what permit us to provide the high-quality care our patients deserve.
On behalf of CFNU’s National Executive Board, we commend KHMU for taking a strong stand to protect patients and health care workers in South Korea. I wish you success and extend the solidarity of nurses from across Canada.
In solidarity always,