"3,000 Children Left Without Snacks as Meal Service Workers Strike for Exemption from Snack Duties: 'Unacceptable to Use Kids as Leverage'"

84 Meal Service Workers Demand Exemption from Snack Duties
28 Out of 381 Public Kindergartens in Jeonnam Disrupted by Strike

The strike by meal service workers at independent public kindergartens in the Jeonnam region has continued for over two weeks, resulting in more than 3,000 children not receiving snacks.

According to the Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education on September 1, meal service workers who are members of the Jeonnam branch of the School Irregular Workers' Union have been on strike since August 18, demanding to be exempted from snack-related work. A total of 84 workers, including nutritionists, cooks, and kitchen assistants from 28 independent kindergartens, are participating in the strike, affecting 3,037 children attending these kindergartens.

Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education building.

There are a total of 381 public kindergartens in the Jeonnam region, and the strike is taking place at independent kindergartens, which account for about 7% of the total. In the early days of the strike, each kindergarten coped by providing pre-prepared simple snacks, but as their stock ran out, a full-scale disruption in snack supply began on this day.

Currently, kindergartens are implementing temporary measures such as asking parents to prepare individual snacks or having staff provide simple snacks themselves. However, parents are expressing concerns about the difficulty of providing high-quality snacks and the inconvenience of preparing individual snacks in the hot weather.

One parent criticized, "It is unacceptable to stop providing snacks to young children for whom nutrition is important," adding, "It is not desirable to use the children to push for their own demands."

This conflict began with meal service workers' demands to reduce their workload. The provincial office of education held seven rounds of negotiations with representatives of the meal service workers over five months starting in April, but failed to reach a final agreement.

An official from the provincial office of education stated, "We will come up with practical staffing support measures to reduce the workload of meal service workers and resolve the situation as soon as possible."