Strike Disrupting Hospital Operations

Two days into a general strike staged by the Korean Health and Medical Workers Union, the union announced 36 hospitals and 5,000 workers participated in the strike on July 21, including Korea University Medical Center and Hanyang University Medical Center.

In the meantime, the Ministry of Labor found that a total of 11 hospitals and 1,700 workers participated in the strike after four blood centers of the Korea Red Cross and the Uijongbu Medical Center joined the walkout on July 21. The walkout caused no medical service vacuum as a minimum number of staff members kept working to provide essential medical services in the emergency room, operating room, neonatal room, delivery room, and intensive care unit.

But in some hospitals, unionized members staged a protest, causing disruptions in some operations such as payment services.

Five days into the strike at Asiana Airlines, labor and management returned to the negotiating table on July 21. But they only agreed to meet again on the next day, failing to narrow their differences.

Due to the strike, most of Asiana’s domestic flights have been cancelled except for flights bound for Jeju. Both of its two regularly scheduled cargo flights remain grounded.

Its 106 international flights ran as scheduled except for a flight departing from Incheon at 8:00 p.m. for Sydney, Australia.

Keuk-In Bae Hee-Jae Park bae2150@donga.com min07@donga.com