- 'Hotel Wasps,’ or solidarity activists, perform dances of solidarity with the workers struggling for reinstatement at the Sejong Hotel [Video: Heo Jihee]
COVID-19 was the stated reason these workers were forced out of their jobs of more than 20 years. However, Sejong Hotel has since recovered, but it refused to reinstate laid-off workers, all local members of Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. After Joo Myung-gun became the new chairman of the Sejong Hotel, union suppression and targeting intensified. Joo was the former chief director of Daeyang Academy, the private school foundation that operates Sejong University, and the shadow of this private school conglomerate’s corruption and fraud remains cast over the Sejong Hotel.
There was no struggle that wasn’t attempted: whether they be press conferences, one-person protests, protest tents, propaganda campaigns, prostration protests, and legal battles. Without fail, they visited the struggle sites of small businesses to show solidarity. On the night of December 3, while continuing their overnight sit-in, they heard the news of martial law. The impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol and the end of the rebellion became incredibly urgent for the workers of the Sejong Hotel labor union.
Thanks to the “Hotel Wasp” comrades (citizens who engage in solidarity activism especially after experiencing the impeachment rallies) who flew in to show their solidarity, President Ko Jin-soo of the Sejong Hotel Branch of the Tourism and Leisure Industry Union is able to endure the high altitude protests. The rainbow flag of the Sejong Hotel local union, which organizes the "fun struggle - Jam2" with their comrades, is always fluttering brightly at the front of the marching line.
Heo Ji-Hee, a laid-off worker at Sejong Hotel and General Secretary of the Sejong Hotel Local Branch of Tourism and Leisure Industry Union
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2025.4.24(Thu)