Jeonnam Social Welfare and Care Workers Declare Support for Lee Jae Myung

"Welcoming the State Responsibility System for Care...
Creating a Better Environment"

Care workers who provide direct care services to 150,000 elderly people in the Jeonnam region officially declared their support for Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae Myung for president at the Jeonnam Provincial Party headquarters on May 22.

In their statement of support, they said, "Our country is facing difficult circumstances, including the world's highest elderly suicide rate and bankruptcy due to caregiving costs," and added, "We actively welcome candidate Lee Jae Myung's pledge for a 'state responsibility system for care.'"

Workers in social welfare and nursing care in Jeonnam are declaring their support for candidate Lee Jae Myung. Photo by Youngseo Seo

On May 8, candidate Lee announced that he would implement the state responsibility system for care to ensure a healthy and happy old age for seniors, through measures such as expanding integrated care to improve local care convenience, alleviating the burden of caregiving costs, and expanding the primary care physician system for medically vulnerable groups.

The care workers also emphasized, "In addition to candidate Lee's pledge for a state responsibility system for care, we also hope that his previous promises from the 20th presidential election regarding stable employment and appropriate wage guarantees for care workers will be fulfilled."

They also called for policy measures such as strengthening the functions and status of long-term care institutions for the elderly, revising and supplementing complex regulations, shifting from a punitive approach to one focused on support and cooperative management, and introducing a seniority-based pay system tailored to elderly care services.

The care workers highly praised candidate Lee Jae Myung's track record, noting that he has demonstrated a pledge fulfillment rate of over 96% during his tenure as mayor and governor. They said, "We expect that he will be able to implement the state responsibility system for care, establish the status of long-term care institutions, and improve the treatment of care workers better than anyone else."

They added, "We actively support Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae Myung and hope that the promised policies will be realized to improve the care environment for seniors and the working conditions of care workers."