2024-04-08 15:01:00
Representative of the Cho Kuk Reform Party. /yunhap news
While the Metal Workers’ Union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions is protesting once morest the ‘social solidarity wage system’ pledge recently announced by Cho Kuk, leader of the Cho Kuk Innovation Party, criticism is also continuing online, including on the Cho Kuk Innovation Party’s bulletin board and anonymous office workers’ community. The social solidarity wage system states that if companies suppress wage increases, the government will provide tax benefits.
If you look at the Korea Innovation Party’s free bulletin board on the 8th, you can see posts with titles such as ‘Please withdraw the social solidarity wage system’, ‘Opposition to the social solidarity wage system’, and ‘Is it true that large corporations promise to block wage increases?’
In this same article, netizens said, “If it is true, I am a member of the party, but I am withdrawing my support. “Why are you cutting workers’ wages?” “I voted for the Fatherland Innovation Party in the early voting, but what does the party say regarding the social solidarity wage system? Salaries and vacations for office workers are areas that should never be touched. In a capitalist society, even large corporations are private companies, but they have a solidarity wage system. They poured out complaints such as “Please withdraw this ridiculous pledge” and “If you insist on a social solidarity wage system, your approval rating will drop significantly.”
In a post titled ‘If there is no policy, just don’t make a policy’, one netizen said, “A rich man with assets worth 5 billion won, please stop making unnecessary promises.” Representative Cho’s reported assets to the National Election Commission are 5.377 billion won.
Similar reactions followed in the anonymous office worker community ‘Blind’. “Who likes offering to give out of the pockets of fellow workers? “Employees of large corporations also earn the same salary.” “What did the workers of large corporations do wrong? “On what basis are you doing this?” etc. One office worker sarcastically referred to the Fatherland Innovation Party as the ‘party of betrayal to the fatherland.’
An article opposing the social solidarity wage system. /Homeland Innovation Party free bulletin board
In response to such criticism, the Fatherland Innovation Party issued a statement titled ‘This is the truth,’ saying, “The purpose of the social solidarity wage system is to reduce excessive wage gaps,” and added, “The specific methods are diverse, but the key is ‘autonomy.’ and ‘solidarity.’” He said, “Because the government is not forcing it by law, there is talk of tax benefits and incentives.” He continued, “We plan to implement a social solidarity wage system to resolve polarization,” and added, “We will reveal the specific plan through the policy committee following the opening of the hospital.”
Meanwhile, the Fatherland Innovation Party’s pledge for a ‘social solidarity wage system’ was released on the 4th. At the time, Representative Cho said in the National Assembly, “One of the biggest problems in our country is that young people do not go to small and medium-sized businesses.” He added, “The government, large corporations, and small and medium-sized businesses have reached a grand social compromise related to wages, so that large corporations refrain from raising wages and small and medium-sized businesses lower wages.” “We will try to raise it,” he said. However, he did not reveal how he would provide tax benefits or how he would raise financial resources.
On the 5th, a day following the announcement of the pledge, the Metal Workers’ Union said in a commentary titled ‘The president wants to create a blind spot for workers, the opposition party leader wants to freeze workers’ wages’, saying, “Representative Cho Kuk is a social alternative to a law that has a solidarity wage in name but a wage freeze for workers at large corporations.” “I brought this up,” he said. “How can the idea of handing over the problem of narrowing the gap to workers and small and medium-sized businesses without the ability to pay, and even providing incentives and indulgence to large companies with the ability to pay, constitute ‘social solidarity’? “Even if you look closely, it is corporate solidarity and capital solidarity,” he said.
Criticism also came from the People Power Party. Han Dong-hoon, Chairman of the People Power Party Emergency Response Committee, said at a campaign rally on the 7th, “Is there an idea like this from an elementary school student? “It’s not that we’re going to make those who earn less earn well, but we’re going to lower the wages of those who are well-paid,” he said. “They’re siphoning off all the money, so why are they making such a fuss regarding lowering our wages?”
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