Video Fwd: Please don't forget me: Condolence for the 46 dead Samsung workers for occupation disease

URL source: Supporters for the Health And Rights of People in the Semiconductor industry(English: SHARPS)
Video: Please don't forget me: Condolence for the 46 dead Samsung workers for occupation disease
March 13, 2011

출처: 반도체 노동자의 건강과 인권 지킴이(반올림) (클릭)
비디오: 나를 잊지 마세요 (46명의 삼성 직업병 사망노동자 추모 동영상)
2011년 3월 13일

For More info, visit Stop Samsung blog

Site Fwd: [stop samsung] 300+ Samsung security cameras record a young worker’s four attempts at suicide, yet fail to save him

* Image source: SHARP 반도체 노동자의 건강과 인권 지킴이, 반올림(클릭), 2011년 3월 11일

__________________________________
* 관련 사이트

삼성 일반 노조

반도체 노동자의 건강과 인권 지킴이, 반올림

__________________________________

Stop Samsung blog

300+ Samsung security cameras record a young worker’s four attempts at suicide, yet fail to save him

March 5, 2011

One of the latest of a long string of victims of anti-union South Korean conglomerate Samsung, is Samsung LCD facility engineer Kim Joo-hyun, who died by committing suicide on January 11, 2011. He was 25 years old (26 in the Korean way of counting age). Since then it has been more than 50 days. His family – his parents and his elder sister – have been postponing the burial of Joo-hyun’s body until now, as expression of their expectation of justice. Joo-hyun’s body remains at the morgue.

The family’s first demand is an apology. Because the day that he fell from the 13th floor of his Samsung worker dormitory, there were 300 cameras around the dormitory, recording everything.

Just after his death, his father went to the police and they showed him an edited video. They explained to him that he had fallen himself, and that thus it was suicide, not murder. The family spent 10 more days, trying to get the raw, unedited footage of the surveillance video. And they found that actually, he had tried four times to jump. The first two times, he tried and gave up himself, returning to his room. But the third time, when he was at the edge of the balcony on the 13th floor, he was found by another person in the dormitory. That person called the Crisis Help Centre (an office inside Samsung), and then 3-4 men came and persuaded him and escorted him to go back to his room on the 6th floor. But inexplicably, after talking with him a few minutes, the men left the room, leaving him there – alone. After another 10 minutes, Joo-hyun came out – and succeeded in jumping and falling to his death.

After realizing this from the raw videos, the family asked:

1) Why did the company let him try repeatedly?
2) Why did the men leave Joo-hyun alone?
3) Why did they not even call his family or other friends? Joo-hyun had his cellphone.

But Samsung until now has given no answer.

The family’s targets are Samsung, the police and the Ministry of Labor. Kim Joo-hyun worked 12-15 hours a day. He couldn’t rest even on his holidays. He would get calls from the factory to come to work, as if he was on call (though his job is not of an on-call nature). He could not sleep or rest enough. He only visited his hometown one to two times a month, sometimes even only once in two months.

His suicide can be considered suicide from overwork – karo-jisatsu in Japanese, something which can be legally compensated in Japan.

Joo-hyun’s hardship at Samsung

Joo-hyun had been at Samsung for about one year. He had joined Samsung in November 2009 to work as a facility engineer in the fab (fabrication) department of Samsung LCD factory; he was to keep the machines running smoothly.

He had severe skin problems and signs of depression by the time he committed suicide. Just a month or two after he began work in the ‘clean room’, he began to get mild symptoms of atopic dermatitis (like eczema), but it soon became very severe, especially on the side of his legs. When he showed his painful legs to his father in July, his father could see the top layer of skin was very damaged, and even discharging some liquid. It was very itchy and painful for Joo-hyun. He finally requested to change his job duties, and was re-assigned to another location and job in the factory. But in the new department also, he got severely stressed. The supervisors abused him, especially looking down on him for his education level, as he was a graduate of a two-year college.
Moreover, from the beginning of his job, even when he had been working in the clean room, he was forced to write a 20-page report immediately the day after, if there was ever any mistake or damage to the equipment. Thus, even after working extremely long hours and while suffering from skin damage and abuse from superiors at the workplace, he would have to go home and stay up to write the 20-page report. The treatment of workers in the factory was like towards soldiers, or children – typical of many Samsung factories, and apparently of many electronics factories, even in China and Taiwan.

Family and supporters protest

Since a few days after Joo-hyun’s death, Joo-hyun’s family members have been picketing every morning in front of the Samsung LCD factory; they have been doing so for more than 40 days. They also picket near the dormitory, usually in the afternoon, but have not been allowed to go inside anymore. The family and supporter have also recently begun to picket one hour a day during the week, in front of Samsung Headquarters.

SHARPs and KCTU have also written to and protested to the government and police to demand a thorough investigation. The sad death of young Joo-hyun is only one in a long string of tragic deaths of young Samsung workers in South Korea.

Monday, February 28, 2011, was the 49th day since the death of Joo-hyun. It is the day when it is traditionally believed that a soul will return to heaven. The family of Joo-hyun and their supporters conducted a ceremony at Chun-an Station square, to commemorate Joo-hyun’s death and call for the public to join in demanding Samsung take responsibility.

Samsung’s non-response

Strangely (or not), Samsung has kept silent in response to the family’s pleas. Yet every morning at 8 a.m., and steadily in rotating shifts until 10 p.m., a man can be found keeping the family in surveillance at the funeral hall where Joo-hyun’s funeral had been held.

Samsung and LG’s LCD factories

Having a dormitory for workers is not very common in Korea. Yet Samsung built a huge dormitory which houses at least several hundred workers.

Just 8 days earlier, another Samsung worker had committed suicide, jumping from another place in the dormitory. She was 23 years old. In the Samsung dormitory, an apartment has three rooms, and three workers stay in each room. The number of apartments per floor is not exactly known, but there are at least 13 floors.

It is quite possible that suicides have been happening in other factories such as in LG. However LG’s main workforce is dispatch (temporary) workers, and they do have a union, at least in form. On the other hand, Samsung’s main workforce is regular (formal) workers, and Samsung is adamantly anti-union. Samsung workers thus usually work longer, generally expecting to work for their life in the company. But with no way to handle the grievance between union and company, the family must appeal to the public. In spite of the public appeals, Samsung has remained unresponsive – only making itself appear more culpable.

Samsung workers should be happy and enjoying their work for a great brand and pride of the nation, but instead they have been suffering and dying in increasing numbers, shushed by the company and even ignored by government authorities. We appeal to the public who reads this blog, to let more people know about what happened to Kim Joo-hyun, as well as the others whose stories have been shared here. Only through such support and solidarity can the small Davids of Samsung worker victims fight against the Goliath of anti-union Samsung conglomerate and the South Korean government for justice.

We urge you to leave your messages of condolence and solidarity to the grieving family of Kim Joo-hyun in the comments. We will translate them and share with his family.

READ MORE

Text Fwd: Samsung blocks investigation on an LCD engineer’s suicide

Kim Jeong, the elder sister of Kim Ju-hyeon, holds brother’s portrait in a request to speak with a representative in front of the Samsung Electronics headquarters in Seoul. (Photo by Lim Ji-sun)　

Hankyoreh
Samsung blocks investigation on an LCD engineer’s suicide
: Samsung has refused dialogue, while the Labor Ministry has refused disclosure of employment regulations and Lee Ju-hyeon’s health examination
By Lim Ji-sun　　
　　
As workers streamed out of the building for lunch at noon on Thursday, three women stood in front of the head office of Samsung Electronics in Seoul’s Seocho neighborhood holding a funeral portrait and wailing. The women are the mother, older sister, and aunt of Kim Ju-hyeon, a worker at the company’s Tangjeong LCD complex who committed suicide in his dormitory on Jan. 11. Kim was 25.

Thursday marked one week since the bereaved family members, who had previously issued their calls for an investigation in front of the Tangjeong complex in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, assumed their positions in front of the head office in Seoul. Kim’s older sister Jeong, 28, said, “We came to Seoul after the people at the Tangjeong complex told us, ‘It is out of our hands now, go tell the head office,’ but nobody will meet with us.”

Samsung positioned employees to physically prevent Kim’s family members from entering the building. The same scene has been repeated for a full week, with dozens of men positioned at the entrance to the main building to block the bereaved family members.
Shockingly, the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) has also been silent to their demands for an investigation. On Feb. 28, the 49th day since Kim’s death, the ministry notified them of a decision not to disclose Samsung Electronics’ employment regulations, explaining that they were Samsung’s “trade secrets.”

This decision has been called unprecedented even by those within MOEL.

“The employment regulations are a document that is made well-known to all workers, clearly specifying their working conditions and so forth,” said a MOEL official. “I cannot fathom how this could be a trade secret.”

“In my eight years as a labor attorney, I have never seen the Ministry of Employment and Labor refuse to disclose a company’s employment regulations,” said Lee Jeong-ran, a labor attorney with the group Banollim, a civic organization that advocates for the health and human rights of workers in the semiconductor industry. “The decision not to disclose the regulations is evidence that the Ministry of Employment and Labor is assigning itself the role of Samsung’s puppet,” Lee added.

Samsung Electronics stated, “[The employment regulations] are designated internally as something to be kept confidential from the outside.”

MOEL also said that no data exists on suicides and declined to disclose the findings of Kim Ju-hyeon’s special health evaluation, on the grounds that it was “under investigation.”

Kim, who began work as an equipment engineer on Samsung Electronics’ LCD color filter production line in January 2010, jumped to his death from the 13th floor of his dormitory. He had been suffering from stress due to workdays lasting over 12 hours, as well as a skin disease of unknown cause. Fifty days after his death, no funeral has yet been held.

Banollim and other groups that have battled Samsung Electronics over occupational leukemia cases designated the third week of March as “memorial week for workers who have died from semiconductor and electronics industry accidents.” They plan to hold rallies during the week at sites such as Seoul Station and the area near the main offices of Samsung.
　　

Photo Fwd: A dead Samsung worker's father cries

* Image source: Banolim, Voice of People, Feb. 11, 2011 민중의 소리, 2011년 2월 11일 기사, '"주현이 엄마를 시신 안치실에 못가게 했습니다": 故김주현 죽음 이후 한 달, 아버지의 눈물' (클릭)

고(故) 김주현씨의 부친 김명복씨가 천안 삼성전자 공장 앞에서 일인시위를 하고 있다. ⓒ반올림
Kim Myung-Bok(54) has been doing one man protest in front of the Samsung LCD factory, Tamjeong, Choongnam province near one month after his son, Mr. Kim Joo-Hyun, a Samsung worker, made suicide suffering from occupational disease. For more on the story, see Stop Samsung blog(스탑 삼성 블로그)

* Information thanfully provided by Mr. Go Gwon-Il, Gangjeong village, Jeju Island
* 제주도 강정 마을 고권일 선생님 정보 감사히 제공

Text Fwd: A Proclamation of 591 Social Leaders Urging the Samsung Electronics to Take the Responsibility of Laborers’ Occupational Disease

* Image source: same as the link
________________________________

See also Stop Samsung blog

___________________________________

People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy

A Proclamation of 591 Social Leaders Urging the Samsung Electronics to Take the Responsibility of Laborers’ Occupational Disease

“No More Victims in the Samsung Electronics”

Jan. 18, 2011

In 2003, Yoo-Mee Hwang, a third-year student at Sokcho High School, was employed just before her graduation at the Samsung Electronics’ Semiconductor Plant in Giheung. She participated in the defusion process dipping wafer - a thin slice of semiconductor material - into compounds such as hydrogen peroxide and ammonium sulfide. Ji-Youn Park was also employed at Samsung Semiconductor Plant in Onyang. Unable to proceed with her study in college, she had no choice but to start working prior to high school graduation. This eighteen-year-old girl worked in the examination process handling lead solvent and other chemicals. Their pride of working in a leading corporation in South Korea withered away very soon. Both of these young girls got Acute Myeloid Leukemia after two years of work in the corporation and passed away in 2007 and 2010.

While South Korea’s gross national income per capita exceeded 20,000 U.S. dollars in 2007, adolescents from poor families are still under pressure of getting a job soon after mid-school or high-school graduation. Shoe and clothing industries in 1970s have changed into high-tech clean industries such as semiconductor and LCD, but laborers are still in danger of death from hundreds of toxic chemicals used in IT products.

Several years have passed since the laborers working at the Samsung Electronics’ Semiconductor Plants in Giheung and Onyang became victims of Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Nothing has been done, however, for their industrial injury treatment and compensation. The danger of working in these high-tech industries has increasingly been revealed after the continuing social exposure of the deaths of the Samsung Electronics’ laborers. According to the Supporters of Health and Rights of People in Semiconductor Industry (SHARPS), over 100 laborers got lethal disease including leukemia, lymphoma, and brain tumor and 31 have already passed away. Although a further systematic examination is needed for confirming the causes of these deaths, this approximate number of victims in a single corporation is already an alarming signal to the society.

Afraid of harming its image, Samsung has denied its responsibility and rejected to provide injury compensation for its laborers. The governmental branches under charge of industrial safety and accidents such as the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, and the Korean Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service are putting emphasis on industrial security over laborers’ rights. As the Samsung Electronics and the South Korean government shirk their responsibilities and as our society disregard the people who actually make the fascinating smart phone and maintain high speed internet, the laborers who devoted their lives to the Samsung Electronics are taking occupational disease and passing away without proper treatment.

Will we keep disregarding these laborers of the Samsung Electronics who are lack of time and energy? In order to resolve this problem in regard to occupational disease, we urge the Samsung Electronics, the government, and the National Assembly to do the following:

First, Samsung should admit its responsibility of the laborers’ occupational disease and do its best to solve the problem.

Samsung is the leading corporation in semiconductor industry, occupying 35% in the DRAM semiconductor world market and exceeding 5 trillion won in the second quarter of this year. Samsung’s attitude toward this case of occupational disease, however, is very disappointing. It is obvious that laborers in semiconductor industry handle toxic chemicals and that they are able to accidently be exposed to those chemicals. Samsung has ignored this obvious fact, only caring for its faultless image. Samsung has neglected its suffering laborers and preventing them from receiving industrial injury compensation from the government.

Instead of concealing the case, Samsung should take the responsibility of its victims. The first step is to admit that the suffering laborers as the victims of occupational disease.

Second, the government should confirm the diseases as industrial accidents, conduct a reliable and systematic examination, and take charge of revising the relevant legislations.

While 16 Samsung laborers suffering from occupational disease have applied for industrial accident by now, 10 cases have been disapproved by the government and 6 are still pending. While the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance aims at protecting laborers by immediately compensating for laborers’ industrial accident, the government is asking for a clearer scientific causal relation from the victims who do not even have information accessibility. Furthermore, it is revealed in a recent inspection of the administration affairs that the government took allowed the Samsung Electronics to actively participate in the administrative lawsuit filed by the laborers. Now it is confusing whether the government serves for employees’ welfare or Samsung’s welfare.

Doing its duty to protect laborers’ life and health, the government should admit the suffering laborers as victims of industrial accident. In order to serve the purpose of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance, the government should revise the legislations related to industrial safety and accident and relax the responsibility of the victims to provide scientific evidence in support of occupational disease.

Third, the National Assembly should force the government to conduct a reliable examination and revise the legislations related to industrial accident and chemical management.

In the most recent inspection of the administration affairs, both governing and opposition parties urged the government to solve the case of Samsung laborers’ occupational disease. While there has been a single examination from the government, however, it was suspicious in terms of impartiality and reliability. The current examination conducted by Samsung itself is also far from being impartial.

Accordingly, both governing and opposition parties in the National Assembly should collaborate with each other to conduct a reliable examination at the national-level. In addition, both parties should immediately revise the legislations related to industrial accident and chemical management and provide a prompt and impartial protection for the laborers suffering from industrial accidents.

December 21, 2010

Best, 591 Social Leaders;
- 88 Health and Medical practitioner
- 159 Legal Experts
- 33 Professors
- 65 Writers
- 3 Religious Leaders
- 45 Human Rights Movement Leaders
- 37 Women Rights Movement Leaders
- 64 Labor Movement Leaders
- 87 Civil Society Campaign Leaders

Download
20101221_591 social leaders.doc

Photos Fwd: Bereaved families of Samsung workers demand justice 삼성 유가족들, 정의를 요구하며 농성

________________________________________________

* 2010년 10월 19일자 [취재요청]삼성반도체 백혈병유족과 피해자가족 근로복지공단 농성은
삼성 일반 노조를 클릭하세요.
________________________________________________

* All the image source: Yoon Ji-Yeon, Newscham, Oct. 19, 2010 윤지연. 참세상, 2010년 10월 19일

When the Korean Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service did not acknowledge the industrial deaths of the Samsung electronic workers, some bereaved families of workers entered the vigil, demanding justice, on Oct. 19, 2010.




________________________________________________

* See also Stop Samsung, Oct. 12, 2010 blog

“IT broke my life!” – SHARP victims and activists hold ‘die-in’ at IT festival in Korea

'On October 12, SHARPS held a protest ‘die-in’ action in front of KINTEX where the huge international semiconductor & electronics exhibitions are held.'


________________________________________________
* Related blog 관련 블로그

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 2010년 3월 31일
[International Petition: Samsung! Acknowledge the Workers' Occupational Death]
A Samsung Worker died in the “Dream Factory” of the Samsung Electronics
국제 청원: 삼성! 노동자들의 직업 사망을 인정하라!
한 삼성 노동자, 삼성 전자 "꿈의 공장"에서 죽다!

Text Fwd: Statement by SHARPS: In memory of the Foxconn workers who rejected the life of slavery hidden behind the myth of I-phone

Stop Samsung.wordpress.com

Statement by SHARPS: In memory of the Foxconn workers who rejected the life of slavery hidden behind the myth of I-phone

[Statement]

June 22, 2010

Foxconn is the global electronics manufacturing company, a representative company of the Chaiwan model combining Taiwanese technology and Chinese labour. Especially, this company is making parts for the Iphone, which is popular throughout the whole world. In China it employs a total of 800,000 workers, and in its Shenzhen factory alone it employs 420,000 workers.

Yet it is a horrifying fact that this year from January 24 until May 27, about 13 workers attempted to kill themselves and 10 died, while three have suffered severe injuries, in this model factory. In particular, among these 12 young workers, by choosing to throw their bodies to the ground, showed very clearly the seriousness of the inhumane worker-management relations at the Foxconn factory.

What could have made these workers, who had come from the villages to the city in search of jobs, choose this extreme path? According to media reports, Foxconn model factory sported amenities and facilities such as a cafe, bookstore, movie theatre and even a hospital. Yet the Foxconn workers, for whom the basic income was the minimum wage of 900 yuan, had no choice but to work two shifts, working at least ten hours every day, just to earn a living; and they were forced to work in a stifling atmosphere where they could not even talk to their colleagues during working hours. Moreover not only were there 85 reasons that one could get fired, but verbal and physical abuse from the guards and management happened frequently.

Still, at first the company did not respond seriously to the workers’ suicides, and after evading the issue and the problem got more grave, on May 26 the CEO Taiming Guo stepped forward to give a public apology. However immediately after the public apology there was yet another suicide by jumping from a building, and it was shown that the situation could not be resolved with out a clear strategy.

Korean civil society and labour organizations feel deeply sad about the Foxconn workers’ tragedy, and we want to point out that behind the struggle of the Foxconn workers as well as the Chinese Honda factory and other factories’ workers, is the monstrous nature of companies that treat workers like trifling objects. The companies advancing into China think that even if they pay workers low salaries and repress them, there are always more workers available. As long as they don’t stop counting their profits like this, the casual response of Foxconn management can always be repeated: “Compared to China’s national suicide rate, 13 suicides out of a huge factory of 420,000 is not that significant.”

This base nature of capital is the same in Samsung Semiconductors, which says “compared to the whole population, if 50-odd workers in their twenties and thirties die of cancer in a factory with tens of thousands of workers, it’s not significant.”

Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple known as an icon of innovation, is no different either. He gave supporting words to the CEO of his subcontracting factory, saying that Foxconn is not an exploiter of workers. But as the deaths of the workers who out of desperation threw away their own lives continued, those CEOs could not avoid having to come forward and apologize to the workers and promise to take corrective measures.

If the blood and tears of the workers hidden behind the cutting edge electronics product like Iphone were not revealed, and if we don’t fight together in solidarity, these kinds of tragedies will only continue, and the capital will continue to move around the world searching for cheaper and more docile workers.

In order to warn capital that it has nowhere else to escape, and that it cannot survive as long as it keeps treating workers like disposable objects, we need to build the international solidarity of the workers. Let’s make our living and working places a place where people can live properly as human beings, through the strong international solidarity of workers, so that the workers’ deaths would not have been in vain!

Action Committee for Reinstatement of Laid-off Samsung Workers

All Together

Association for Research on Occupational Health

Association of Victims of Occupational Injuries

Chungnam Joint Committee about Leukemia in Samsung

Coalition for Elimination of Occupational Injury in Masan, Changwon, and Geoje

Coalition for Elimination of Occupational Injury in Ulsan

Dasan Human Rights Center

Democratic Labor Party (Gyeonggi local)

Dongwoo Fine Chem Union Chapter of KMWU

Gyeonggi Informal Labor Center

Gyeonggi Law center of KCTU

Gyeonggi Local branch of KCTU

High Tech RCD Korea Branch of KMWU

Inchon Association of Victims of Occupational Injuries

Kiryung Electronics Chapter of KMWU

Korea House of International Solidarity

Korea Institute of Labor Safety and Health

Korean Metal Workers Union(KMWU)

National Association of Professors for Democratic Society

New Progressive Party (Gyeonggi local)

Preparatory Committee for Socialist Workers Party (Gyeonggi local)

Socialist Party (Gyeonggi local)

Solidarity for worker’s health

Supporters for Health And Right of People in Semiconductor industry(SHARPS)

The Solidarity for Healthy Labor World

The Solidarity for Healthy Labor World

Wonjin Labor Safety and Health Education Center

Korean Independent Video: Investigation on Samsung

Sorry, This is for Korean only. But in the below video, a young widow, Jung Ae-Jung of a diseased worker talks about his husband’s death with tears (March 7, 2010). In the below links (June 11, 2010), Samsung workers discuss about the Samsung workers' deaths that are from the industrial damage in the Samsung semi-conductor factories. So far, about 46 workers are known to have gotten the disease including the cancer and leukemia while 9 have died. For more on the issue, please see HERE and HERE.

Production: Color TV(March 27, 2010)
Another Family that Samsung abandoned
삼성이 버린 또 하나의 가족


* Other video series_Investigation on Samsung: Thinking of Samsung (June 11, 2010)
PartI(click), Part III(click)are here.
Part II will be later informed.

Site Fwd:[Hankyoreh] International investors request explanation from Samsung over occupational hazards allegations

[Hankyoreh 21]
International investors request explanation from Samsung over occupational hazards allegations
: Eight international investors have launched a joint inquiry, to which Samsung is expected to issue a formal response
Posted on : Jun.2,2010 14:29 KST

» Members of a civic organization in support of the human rights of workers in the semiconductor industry hold a signboard that mourns the death of Samsung Electronics' ex-employee Ms. Park Ji-hyeon in front of Samsung Headquarters in Seocho-dong, Seoul, April 2. Institutional investors in Europe and the U.S. have asked Samsung for an explanation over allegations that workplace practices related to toxic chemicals at Samsung semi-conductor plants in South Korea have been the cause of increased fatal cancer rates among employees. The Hankyoreh 21 exclusively obtained a letter issued by eight foreign investors including the All Pensions Group (APG) of the Netherlands, which was sent to Samsung Electronics President Choi Ji-seong on May 21. The investors requested that Samsung provide more information about occupational safety raised by Samsung‘s former employees. The investors are a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) of the UN, which was established by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on April, 2006. It states that eco-friendliness, social responsibility and corporate governance should be considered as important factors for investment. About 700 institutional investors managing the 15 percent of the world’s invested capital have joined PRI. They have broached six questions about the allegations of Samsung Electronics’ toxic chemicals. First, regarding Samsung’s plan to invite a third-party investigation team, they have requested more information about the timeline to implement this plan, the strategy on how to deal with its outcomes and to what degree Samsung would disclose the outcomes to its investors and/or to the public. They also asked if Samsung currently has plans to deal with the ailing ex-employees including the provision of medical supports, training activities and presence of a whistle-blowing policy and effectiveness of governance regarding overall work place safety issues. The death of former Samsung Electronics employee Hwang Yu-mi ignited the allegation of Samsung’s workplace safety. Hwang passed away from acute leukemia in March 2007 at the age of 23, after working in the third line at Samsung Electronics’ Giheung plant. Another employee Park Ji-hyeon, who fell ill with acute leukemia after working at Samsung Electronics’ Onyang plant, died on March 31, 2010. Samsung denied any link between cancer and the workplace conditions, however, by opening up the Giheung plant to the media on April 15. Samsung called the string of diseases “mere coincidence.” The situation took a volatile turn when the Hankyoreh 21 published an internal Samsung semiconductor handbook describing a wide range of toxic chemicals used in the plant in an article entitled “Samsung Semiconductor Uses Six Types of ‘carcinogens’,” published May 21, 2010. APG initially proposed a joint inquiry into the allegations about Samsung on April 30, saying, “Twenty-three former employees of Samsung Electronics have fallen ill with leukemia through April 22, and they have raised questions about occupational safety at Samsung Electronics plants.” Initially, APG proposed that investors request Samsung disclose more information on the safety of the workplace, and eight international investors made the decision to support the proposal. An APG official said other investors had already submitted respective requests to Samsung to explain the occupational safety allegations. The institutional investors that joined the joint inquiry plan will coordinate on the allegations through conference calls soon. Samsung is expected in turn to issue a formal response to the investors’ inquiries. By Lim Ji-seon sun21@hani.co.kr

[Two Texts Fwd] Two Faces of Samsung: Workers Die, Lee Revives

* Image source: Hankyoreh, May 17, 2010
'A copy of the Samsung Electronics semiconductor “environmental handbook” obtained by the Hankyoreh 21 contains some 50 types of chemicals and gases analyzed for harmfulness by a team of experts.'
　

* Image source: Korea Times, May 17, 2010
'Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, second from left, wields a ceremonial shovel during a ground-breaking ceremony for a new chip line at the company's semiconductor complex in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. Joining Lee are other Samsung senior executives, including Kwon Oh-hyun, left, president of Samsung's semiconductor business; Choi Gee-sung, third from left, the company's president and chief executive; and Lee Jae-yong, fourth from left, Samsung's chief operating officer (COO) and son of Chairman Lee. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics'

___________________________________________________________

Hankyoreh, May 17, 2010

'The controversy over reported workplace hazard at a Samsung Electronics semiconductors plant that may have led employees to contract leukemia has been rising following the disclosure of an internal “environmental handbook” showing the use of six types of carcinogenic materials and more than 40 types of dangerous irritants.

For Issue No. 811 to be released Monday, the magazine Hankyoreh 21 obtained a copy of the notebook, which was provided to engineers in charge of process management at the Samsung semiconductor factory in Giheung. Some 50 types of chemicals and gases appearing on the list of “Factors Influencing the Environment for the Different Processes” were analyzed for harmfulness by a team of experts, including Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Health Professor Yoon Chung-sik and Catholic University of Daegu Industrial Health Professor Choi Sang-joon. The notebook in question was classified as top secret, and distribution outside the company was prohibited.

According to the analysis, a total of six carcinogenic materials were used in the semiconductor plant, namely trichloroethylene, thinner, sensitizing solution, dimethylacetamide, arsine (AsH3) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4).'


Korea Times, May 17, 2010

'Lee Kun-hee is back but this time, the leader of the Samsung business empire is no longer as shy of the limelight as before. As a matter of fact, he looks comfortable in it.

His latest appearance was made during Monday's ground-breaking ceremony for a new semiconductor production line together with his only son Jae-yong, widely considered his successor-designate, and Samsung's top management. It was timed with Samsung Electronics' unveiling of massive investment plans to the tune of 26 trillion won ($23 billion).

Samsung Electronics, now the world's largest technology company, unveiled plans for a dramatic splurge to jolt its memory chip and liquid crystal display (LCD) businesses this year.'

Photos Fw: Protesting against Samsung

__________________________________________________________________
* Please Join the International Petition
to Demand Samsung to Acknowledge the Workers' Occupational Death!

__________________________________________________________________

* For the Videos on April 2, 2010,
See HERE (Video by Kim Tae-Hwan, Voice of People, April 2, 2010)
__________________________________________________________________
* Related Blog:

Wednesday, March 31, 2010
A Samsung Worker died in the “Dream Factory” of the Samsung Electronics

__________________________________________________________________

* Image source: Hankyoreh, April 3, 2010(Photo by Lee Jong-geun)

'Members of a civic organization in support of the human rights of workers in the semiconductor industry hold a demonstration in order to draw attention to issues surrounding Park Ji-yeon, who had worked at the Samsung Electronics ’ semiconductor factory and died of leukemia, in front of the Samsung Electronics headquarters located in Seoul ’ s Seocho district, April 2. They argued that Samsung should recognize Park’s passing as an occupational death. However, the police arrested all seven members of the civic organization.'


* Image source: Pressian, April 2, 2010 (Photo by Lee Sang-Yeob)

* Image source: (Photo by Kim Yong-Wook) News Charm, April 2, 2010

* Image source: (photo by Lee Myung-Ik)Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, April 2, 2010

[International Petition: Samsung! Acknowledge the Workers' Occupational Death] A Samsung Worker died in the “Dream Factory” of the Samsung Electronics

___________________________________________________________________________________

* Please go to the site of the ‘International Petition
-Calling on Samsung to Accept Responsibility for Occupational Deaths’
by the Asian Network for the Rights Of Occupational Accident Victims (ANROAV) (Click above letters)

삼성 노동자들의 산재 사망을 인정하라는 국제 청원이
산재 희생자들의 권리를 위한 아시아 넷워크에 의해 이루어지고 있읍니다.
국문으로 된 청원 및 서명 방법입니다(클릭)
또는 원문 서명 사이트로 직접 가시길(클릭).

* Sanjiv Pandita, Director of the Asia Monitoring Resources Center, AMRC, sent the telegram of condolence upon the death of Park Ji- Yeon. You can see the English after Korean when you scroll down HERE.
아시아 노동감시센터의 감독인 산지브 판디타씨께서 박지연 씨 사망과 관련, 조전을 보내왔습니다. 사이트를 내려가시면 국문과 함께 여기에서 보실 수 있읍니다.
___________________________________________________________________________________
* This site was thankfully translated by Makiko Sato. See HERE.
위 의 사이트는 마키토 사또에 의해 감사히 번역되었읍니다. 여기를 보시길.
The Labor Net, Japan has also thankfully translated many 'NewsCharm' articles.
일본 Labor Net사이트 역시 많은 '참세상' 기사들을 번역했군요.
If you click each letter, 'K' (original Korean articles) in( ) and 'J'(each Japanese translated article),
you can see the Korean originals and Japanese translations
( ) 안의 'K' (국문 원문) 및 'J' (일본어 번역) 각 글자들을 클릭하시면 각각의 국문 원문과 일본어 번역을 볼 수 있읍니다.
J1(K1), J2 (K2), J3(K3), J4(K4), J5(K5)...
___________________________________________________________________________________

* Related blogs 관련 블로그들

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2010/04/photo-fw-protesting-against-samsung.html
Saturday, April 3, 2010 2010년 4월 3일
Photos Fw: Protesting against Samsung on April 2, 2010 (including the arrest of the protesters)
사진들: 2010년 4월 2일 삼성에 대한 시위 (시위자들 체포 사진들 포함)

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/11/text-fwd-asian-workers-united-in.html
Nov 21, 2009 2009년 11월 21일
Text Fw: Asian Workers United in Condemnation of Samsung Repression of Workers
삼성의 노동자 억압에 맞서는 아시아 노동자들의 항의 성명 (영문 아래 국문)

___________________________________________________________________________________
See the Videos HERE and HERE
여기와 여기서 비디오들을 보세요.

See the Hankyoreh article (April 1, 2010)
Samsung denies responsibility for cancer cluster of 23 workers :
Park Ji-yeon marks the eighth victim of the occupational hazards
at Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor factories

___________________________________________________________________________________

Click the image for larger view

* Image source 이미지 소스 : Banolim (also forwarded from Mr. Kim Seong-Hwan 김성환 on April 1, 2010)

* The below is the translation by Doris, AMRC (from the Banolm site 원문 사이트) (번역: AMRC 도리스씨)

Ms. Park Ji-yeon
Born in 1987.
She entered Samsung Semiconductor Onyang factory 27 December 2004, while still attending Kanggyung High School.
Job duties: inspection in the quality inspection group and experiment inspection using various chemical products in Line 1, especially usual duties of special inspections using X-ray machine.
In August 2007, when she had been working 32 months (nearly 3 years) she suddenly experienced breathing difficulty, dizziness, vomiting, bleeding, and swelling of gums. On 12 September 2007, she was diagnosed with acute myelitic leukemia at Daejeon St. Mary’s Hospital.
No one in her family had ever suffered leukemia or any form of cancer, and before contracting leukemia, Ji-yeon had been so healthy that she rarely even caught a cold.
In October 2007, she was moved to Yeoido St. Mary’s Hospital and received four rounds of chemotherapy.
April 2008, underwent difficult bone marrow transplant operation.
September 2009, a relapse of leukemia.
26 March 2010, her illness suddenly became worse and she was admitted to Kangnam St. Mary’s Hospital.
27 March 2010, she was transferred to BMT- ICU.
31 March 2010, 11 a.m., she passed away.

*Image source: Banolim 반올림 (SHARPs: Supporters for the Health And Rights of People in the Semiconductor industry)

___________________________________________________________________________

*All the below image sources: Jang Il-Ho, Sisa In, March 29, 2010 장일호, 시사인, 2010년 3월 29일.
The original source of the third image is "Banolim," 반올림, an activist organization for workers' rights.

* Park Ji-Yeon, 23, a Samsung worker who died on March 31, 2010 has left her letter to an activist,
in her mini homepage on March 20, 2010. The activist organization, Banolim loaded it to its website,
after Park was moved to hospital again on March 26. Park’s health has been rapidly deteriorated
after about a week of her discharge from the hospital.

“[Ms. Lee Jong Ran], I was discharged from the hospital today,,^^
I assume you are doing well, too??
The yellow sand phenomenon is very serious today,,
When I can see you again,,,^^” (translation)

* Parents waiting for the interview with their daughter Ji-Yeon, who were moved to the BMT (Bone Marrow Transplantation), a seriously ill patients’ room, on March 28. The hospital told them with the shocking notification that “We did everything we could do. You, families should prepare for [her funeral]” on the day. (translation)

*A rally for demanding the Samsung’s responsibility for the mass leukemia of the Samsung semi-conduct workers’ in front of Kiheung factory, Samsung Electronics, March 25, the next day of the returning back of the former Samsung President, Lee Gun-Hee to his work. (translation)

___________________________________________________________________________
What people in the world know about Samsung? Samsung is probably best known for the computers, monitors and mobile phones that are displayed in sanitary conditions in the electric goods shops around the world.

세계의 사람들은 삼성에 대해 무엇을 아는가? 삼성은 세계 곳곳 전자 상가들에서 위생적인 상태로 전시되는 컴퓨터, 모니터, 모바일 폰등으로 가장 잘 알려져 있을 것이다.

According to Wikipedia, ‘the Samsung Electronics is the world's largest electronics company with a revenue of $117.4 billion in 2009, headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It is the largest South Korean company and the flagship subsidiary of the Samsung Group.’

위키피디아에 따르면, '삼성 전자는 2009년 예산이 1,174 억 달러에 달한 세계에서 가장 큰 전자 회사로 남한 서울 삼성 타운에 본부를 두고 있다. 남한에서 가장 큰 기업이며 삼성 그룹의 대표적인 소속 회사이다.

Here in Korea, Samsung is the kingdom that controls the politics of South Korea so Koreans call the Republic of Korea as Samsung Republic of Korea. Its nepotism, corruption, and above all, vicious oppression and even threat to workers of death have brought up the Asian workers’ infuriated statement last year and this year, as well.

여기 한국에서, 삼성은 남한의 정치를 통제하는 왕국이라 한국인들은 대한 민국 공화국을 삼성 공화국이라 부른다. 그것의 족벌주의, 부패, 그리고 무엇보다 노동자들에 대한 악의적인 억압과 심지어 노동자들에 대한 죽음위협은 작년과 올해에 분노에 찬 아시아 노동자들의 성명서를 불러 일으켰다.

Samsung is also the company for the cause of the Yongsan Tragedy, with Daerim and POSCO, of which the two former companies would involve the 1st construction part of harbor and bay for the planned Jeju naval base.

삼성은 대림, 포항 제철과 함께 용산 참사의 원인일 뿐 아니라 앞의 두 회사는 예정된 제주 해군 기지의 1단계 공사인 항만 건설에 참여하게 된다.

Samsung is also one of the representing Korean aerospace companies with Hyundae and Daewoo. A heading arms production and sale corporation, as well.

삼성은 현대, 대우와 함께 대표적인 한국의 우주 항공 회사이다. 또한 무기 생산과 판매 회사이기도 하다.

Behind such glamour and sins of Samsung, workers have been silently dieing for the hazardous work environment of the Samsung factories. And Samsung and the government institutions that are controlled by Samsung have never acknowledged their deaths were for the careless environmental cause in the factories of Samsung. The recently returned former Samsung president, Lee Gun-Hee and his Samsung group have formed the kingdom inside the ROK with the horrendous power.

삼성의 그러한 화려함과 죄 뒤에서 노동자들이 삼성 공장의 유해한 환경으로 조용하게 죽어가고 있었다. 그리고 삼성과 삼성에 의해 통제되는 정부 기관들은 그들의 죽음이 삼성 공장의 부주의한 환경적 요인이란 것을 인정하지 않았다. 최근 복귀한 이건희 회장과 그의 삼성 그룹은 무시무시한 권력으로 남한안에 왕국을 형성했다.

This morning, Mr. Kim Seong-Hwan, the Chairman of Samsung General Labor Union informed the sad news as below:

오늘 아침, 삼성 일반 노조 김성환 위원장님께서 아래의 슬픈 소식을 전해 왔다:

Park Ji-Yeon, 23, a three year Samsung Semi-conductor worker in the Samsung Electronics died after the hard struggle against the leukemia in the morning of March 31, 2010. The cause of her illness and death are clearly due to the hazardous work environment of the Samsung Semiconductor factory in Onyang, Gyunggi province.

2010년 3월 31일 오전, 박지연, 23세, 삼성 전자의 3년간 삼성 반도체 노동자가 백혈병에 맞서 힘들게 투쟁한 끝에 사망했다. 그의 질병과 사망은 분명히 경기도 온양 공장 삼성 반도체 의 유해한 작업 환경 때문이다.
___________________________________________________________________________

*Below is the arbitrary summary and translation, much referred to article, bu Jang Il-Ho, Sisa In on March 29, 2010. Mr. Kim Seong Hwan thankfully forwarded the article on March 30, as well.
* 아래는 2010년 3월 29일, 장일호님의 시사인 기사를 자의적으로 요약및 번역 한 것입니다. 김성환님께서 3월 30일 역시 포워드하셨읍니다.

The Samsung Electronics is the so called, ‘Dream Factory.’ However, ‘Another family’ is dying in that dream factory, again.

Park Ji-Yeon, 23, has worked in the Onyang factory of the Samsung Electronic, since Dec. 2004 but discovered the symptom in July 2007 when her stomach became to have the problem, sometimes with bloody flux. The first remark by the doctor was, “ Have you touched the chemicals?”

She has recently been discharged from the hospital on March 20 but had to be hospitalized again after a week and been moved to the Bone Marrow Transplantation room that was only for the seriously ill patients on March 26. Since then only 20minutes interview time even with her parents and grandmother has been allowed.

The numbers, counted with only the confirmed, of the cancer patients of the blood-forming problems such as leukemia, lymphoma have reached 22, in the Samsung semi-conduct factories, by Dec. 2009.

Among them, seven workers have been known to die, while symptoms such as loss of hair, miscarriage, and amenorrhea have been innumerably discovered in the many workers in the same factories.

However, the Samsung Electronic has never acknowledged their death as the industrial disaster. And according to the research by The Korea Occupational and Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA), the ‘Leukemia of the workers has nothing to do with the industrial disaster.’

The families of the dead and the current patients have collectively applied the lawsuit against the KOSHA, appealing for the cancellation of the disposal of no- payment to the bereaved families and for the funeral,’ Even though its form was the administrative lawsuit, in fact, it brought up the lawsuit to demand that the KOSHA should acknowledge [workers’ death] by such as leukemia as, “Industrial Disaster.”

The Samsung has paid Park’s hospital cost while talked to her mother that if she would ask help to the activists or be shown in the interview with the press, it would not help her any more. Therefore it was very difficult for her mother who could not pay the expensive hospital cost, to join the lawsuit but she eventually joined it.

“ There should be no more person like Ji-Yeon . The coming people should work in the good environment. If not, more people will be sick, too, like Ji-Yeon. Those children who do such work should have grown-up in the poor families like us.”

Behind the gorgeous screens of Samsung monitors, workers are silently dieing in front of the bloody-tear of their families. How many workers have to die to spread the truth of Samsung’s horrible dealing with its workers, in South Korea or Thailand, or in any other third world countries?

Please boycott Samsung products in your country!