{"id":2199449,"date":"2022-11-10T08:58:27","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T08:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/koreapro\/?p=2199449"},"modified":"2023-04-05T16:11:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:11:00","slug":"tragic-factory-death-sets-yoon-administration-up-for-showdown-with-labor-unions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2022\/11\/tragic-factory-death-sets-yoon-administration-up-for-showdown-with-labor-unions\/","title":{"rendered":"Tragic factory death sets Yoon administration up for showdown with labor unions"},"content":{"rendered":"
South Korean consumers have called for a <\/span>boycott of Paris Baguette<\/span><\/a> \u2014 a ubiquitous South Korean bakery chain \u2014 and its parent company SPC Group after a 23-year-old woman was crushed to death at their factory.<\/span><\/p>\n In the early hours of Oct. 15, 2022, the woman got caught in a sauce mixing machine meant to be operated by two people and was mangled. But the company resumed operations immediately because the Ministry of Employment and Labor had <\/span>only ordered the suspension of work on the machine involved<\/span><\/a> in the accident \u2014 not the entire factory floor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Management ceased operations on the production floor the following day after the ministry recommended suspending additional work in consideration of the emotional trauma of the workers who witnessed the accident.<\/span><\/p>\n SPC officials, including the company\u2019s chairman Heo Young-in, have not explained why the woman worked alone at the factory that night.<\/span><\/p>\n However, two days after the accident, the Korean Chemical Textile & Food Workers’ Union held a press conference <\/span>claiming<\/span><\/a> the company employed an insufficient number of night shift workers. A spokesperson said, \u201cWe have continuously demanded they hire more workers as they lacked night shift personnel, but they did not listen to us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n To make matters worse, in a poor attempt to express condolences, SPC <\/span>sent two boxes of bread to the woman’s funeral service<\/span><\/a>. The bread contained filling the young woman might have made for the company while she was alive.<\/span><\/p>\n The boycott campaign against SPC and its <\/span>crown jewel<\/span><\/a> Paris Baguette has since spread <\/span>beyond South Korea<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Although Heo <\/span>formally apologized<\/span><\/a> for the accident after President Yoon Suk-yeol <\/span>ordered an investigation<\/span><\/a>, this is not the first time the company has found itself under the microscope for poor safety standards or callousness towards its employees. For example, a week before this particular accident, another employee <\/span>suffered a separate accident<\/span><\/a>, but the company did not send the employee to a hospital because of the employee\u2019s status as a non-regular worker. And days after the accident, another employee <\/span>severed his index finger<\/span><\/a> when his hand got stuck while inspecting a bread-packing machine.<\/span><\/p>\n