- Hope Tent and Hope Walkers’ march with Korean Optical Hightech workers
In October 2022, a fire broke out at the Korea Optical Hi-Tech factory in Gumi, Gyeongbuk Province. The company, which was 100% owned by Japan's Nitto Denko Corporation, decided to liquidate and transfer production to another subsidiary, Korea Nitto Optical, in Pyeongtaek. All the workers were laid off due to the closure.
"We are not consumables to be used and discarded," cried the workers, refusing to be unfairly dismissed. They have been on a sit-in for nearly 500 days, demanding employment succession, or continued employment. On January 8, 2025, one year after the two workers Park Jeong-hye and So Hyun-sook began their sit-in, 500 citizens pitched “hope tents” in the factory yard, joined the sit-in struggle, and accompanied the “Hope Walkers” on their 350-kilometer walk from Gumi to the National Assembly in Seoul. The beautiful companionship of not letting comrades fight alone in the hightest of places continues.
Choi Hyeonhwan, President of the Korea Optical Hi-Tech Branch of the Korean Metal Workers' Union
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2025.4.8(Tue)
Lee Jiyoung, General Secretary of the Korea Optical Hi-Tech Branch of the Korean Metal Workers' Union
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2025.4.8(Tue)
January 8, 2024,
Two workers, Park Jung-hye and So Hyun-sook, climb to the roof of the burnt down factory.
February 13, 2025,
A laid-off Sejong Hotel worker, Ko Jin-soo, a chef who had been working there for 20 years, climbs the steel structure of a Myeongdong underpass, outside of the Sejong Hotel.
March 14, 2025,
Kim Hyung-soo, President of the Hanwha Ocean subcontract laborers' branch, climbs a 30-meter CCTV tower outside of Hanhwa headquarters.
April 4, 2025,
On the day of the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, the High Altitude Sit-In Struggle Cultural Festival continued with flags of solidarity.