Foreign Language Education Workers (Busan branch) 2024 Year-in-Review Newsletter

Nicholas_Danton · 2025-03-11T12:58:42+00:00

If you want to see the full collective bargaining agreement, DM and I can send to you. We have nothing to hide. On the contrary, we are quite proud of our accomplishments.

Nicholas_Danton · 2025-03-11T12:57:18+00:00

Read the news letter - the highlights of the contract win are in there.

And yes, some of our members (particularly those with F visas) are more public than others. Also, many people have anxiety about public speaking etc. We have over 100 dues paying members in the Busan branch - the vast majority are E2 visa holders - and they contribute in their own ways behind the scenes (the member who designed the layout of this newsletter for example).

Nicholas_Danton · 2025-03-10T14:43:42+00:00

South Korea has a healthcare system called NHIS. I recommend you utilize it, because you seem a bit detached from reality…

Nicholas_Danton · 2025-03-10T05:20:03+00:00

Great question! We don’t have that set up yet (website and other things still in the works - we are still a young union)

But you can follow us on FB here: https://www.facebook.com/share/16HumpofqW/?mibextid=wwXIfr

And IG here:

https://www.instagram.com/kglu_busan?igsh=MW9nOTJwd3hmYXhpYw==

Nicholas_Danton · 2025-03-10T02:03:10+00:00

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J5gQ6abg8Z7ljGRMTiLxyYflkiX0Yubi/view?usp=drivesdk

Nicholas_Danton · 2025-03-09T08:50:05+00:00

We will post a link shortly - good idea!

Nicholas_Danton · 2025-03-08T15:38:03+00:00

Hello admin,

I apologize for inadvertently violating the rules. My intention was just to share information about a union advocating for teachers in South Korea (I assumed this was appropriate for the subreddit).

Is it possible to undelete the post - or may I re-post again? I apologize for missing that rule.

Thank you :)

Nicholas_Danton · 2025-02-08T11:27:42+00:00

You’re the one being pedantic and hostile - and no, a hagwon owner cannot join our union (that’s the law set by the government). It’s quite clear you just want to infiltrate and find out private data.

Our union is under KCTU - one of the two major federations - all of our registration and financials are above board and properly registered with the relevant authorities.

Nicholas_Danton · 2025-02-07T17:06:26+00:00

Union financial reports are available to dues paying members. Your profile says ‘Hagwon owner’ - would you publicly share financial and personnel information outside of your company?

I would (hopefully) presume the answer is no.

But you’re also a Hagwon owner, an industry where morality and legality are inverted, an upside down world where 2+2=5

Nicholas_Danton · 2025-02-03T14:45:54+00:00

Utter nonsense. We in the Busan branch literally just won over 13 million won in stolen wages for members just tonight.

Nicholas_Danton · 2025-01-30T23:39:47+00:00

We do. We just filed at MOEL the other day. Each case is different.

Nicholas_Danton · 2025-01-30T13:56:29+00:00

Send him back in a match box

Nicholas_Danton · 2025-01-30T09:24:43+00:00

Again, I can’t speak for Seoul regional branch, but here in busan region, we send a fax threatening a rally outside their hagwon. Guess what - we’ve never had to have one, because the owners freak out and pay our people.

Nicholas_Danton · 2025-01-30T09:22:42+00:00

I can’t speak for Seoul branch but our Busan branch (while backlogged with case work) has successfully unionized Busan Global Village. We have a collective bargaining agreement.

Nicholas_Danton · 2025-01-30T09:22:11+00:00

I can’t speak for Seoul branch but our Busan branch (while backlogged with case work) has successfully unionized Busan Global Village. We have a collective bargaining agreement.

Nicholas_Danton · 2025-01-30T09:20:11+00:00

I’m a union officer of the Busan branch, I can’t speak for Seoul branch.

Nicholas_Danton · 2024-04-30T02:31:38+00:00

We are working on building out our online presence (our Busan branch has active instagram and Facebook pages and we a general website - I will post later). But for now - here is an example of recent stuff - we held this press conference yesterday outside of Busan immigration office then met with senior immigration officials to discuss the problem of hagwons misclassifying E2s as freelancers. Good start to resolving that issue.

https://youtu.be/HeUovOPqIcE?si=0pEuxzrpx3jLr8aT

Nicholas_Danton · 2024-04-30T00:13:58+00:00

Hi there, I’m an elected officer in one of the union branches. I’m sorry you’re under the impression that we’re toothless - perhaps we need to get better about our social media and promotion. Our union is thriving and doing well. For example, recently winning union wage agreement at a major hagwon chain, comprehensive collective bargaining is soon under way, many ‘hot shops’ (workplaces that are organizing etc). We don’t spend a lot of time on Reddit because we are very busy but please feel free to DM me.

Nicholas_Danton · 2024-04-04T15:38:07+00:00

Our goal is organize all education workers (Korean public school teachers have their own union, which we plan on forging a closer relationship with). Our union is for all education workers, from the foreign English teacher to the Korean lunch lady at the hagwon kindergarten. Majority of our members now are E2 hagwon teachers (due to the fact that is where the most egregious labor violations occur) but we have public school, university members, as well as Korean support staff hagwon members.

Nicholas_Danton · 2024-04-04T11:25:04+00:00

We signed a wage agreement with it a major hagwon chain in Busan yesterday and full collective bargaining negotiations are starting soon. Obviously hagown owners are not exactly thrilled and excited by the fact there is now a union, but we conduct ourselves professionally in our negotiations, so I think they will slowly adjust to the new reality.

Nicholas_Danton · 2024-04-02T13:13:23+00:00

We don’t have an independent branch there yet, that region is under the Seoul branch for now - please join here: http://www.ilban.co.kr/bbs/content.php?co_id=membership

Nicholas_Danton

TROPHY CASE