Seosawon Union: "Let Seoul Public Care Conduct Citizen Voting Like Free School Meal Referendum"

Announcement of Public Opinion Survey Results for Citizen Awards

The Seoul Metropolitan Social Service Agency (Seosawon) labor union announced the results of its own survey, stating that "over 90% of Seoul citizens responded that the operator of social service institutions should be the 'public sector,'" in relation to Seosawon’s request to terminate the consignment of daycare centers. Along with this, the Seosawon labor union called for a citizen referendum on Seoul’s public care services.

On the 7th, the Seosawon branch of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Public Transport Workers’ Union held a press conference at the Seoul Metropolitan Council, saying, "The survey results confirmed how far Seosawon’s innovation plan is from the perceptions of the majority of Seoul citizens."

Seosawon is an affiliated organization established by the city in 2019 to strengthen the public nature of care services. The public daycare centers operated by Seosawon, called 'Dundun Daycare Centers,' are located in six districts: Nowon, Jungnang, Yeongdeungpo, Seodaemun, Eunpyeong, and Gangdong.

The controversy began as Seosawon’s budget was drastically cut. Last year, the Seoul Metropolitan Council finalized the budget by cutting 10 billion won out of the 16.8 billion won subsidy submitted by the city for Seosawon this year. Accordingly, Seosawon announced that it would suspend the consignment operation of private consigned facilities such as daycare centers in the first half of next year.

The labor union claimed that the management was unilaterally stopping daycare center operations and went on a full strike on October 30th this year, returning after 15 days last month. The union stated that if the city and Seosawon do not change their stance on terminating consignment and the treatment of childcare staff, they will proceed with a warning strike this month followed by another full strike.

At the press conference, the union disclosed the results of a public opinion survey conducted on 1,000 Seoul citizens by the external polling agency 'Southern Post.'

The survey results showed that 91.3% of citizens responded that the operator of social service institutions should be the 'public sector (direct management by public institutions or social service agencies such as Seosawon).' Additionally, 79.2% believed that the suspension of Seosawon’s daycare center operations would deteriorate the public nature of social services, and 92.7% agreed that public welfare facilities operated directly or under public consignment should be expanded to strengthen the public nature of care services.

Based on this survey, the union proposed a citizen referendum to the Seoul city government. Through the press conference, the union said, "The survey results confirm the opinion of the majority of Seoul citizens," and "We propose to Mayor Oh Se-hoon to conduct a citizen referendum on Seoul’s public care policies, including Seosawon, similar to the free school meal issue."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.