Staff and members of the City Union of Baltimore (CUB, Local 800, pictured to the right), Maryland Professional Employees Council (MPEC, Local 6197) and Maryland Classified Employees Association (MCEA, Local 1935) had their photos taken with supportive signs, collected by AFT to be shared with the workers in the effort in South Korea.
From the press release on AFT.org:
About 20,000 education support workers in South Korea, represented by the Korean Public & Social Services and Transportation Workers' Union, Education Workers Solidarity Division (KPTU-EdSol), do not have formal, stable employment status and their wages are not based on years of experience. An education support worker with many years of experience can be paid the same as a worker in his or her first year. KPTU-EdSol members and other education support workers in South Korea are planning a massive rally on June 22, in which tens of thousands of workers are expected to call on the South Korean government to engage in collective bargaining with their union representatives to discuss these and other issues.
"We know that school support workers are the foundation of education, and they play a vital role in improving the quality of the institutions where they work. They are the lifeline of our schools and protect and enrich our students' lives everyday," said AFT Secretary-Treasurer Lorretta Johnson and AFT Vice President Ruby Newbold in a letter to South Korean President Park Geun-hye. Johnson and Newbold are leaders of the AFT's paraprofessionals and school-related personnel division.
"We call on your government to acknowledge the vital work of KPTU-EdSol's members and negotiate with them on the basis of what is just for workers and what is best for students," the AFT leaders said.