No ‘Baker King, Kim Tak-gu’ probably due to strike

The labor union of Korea’s broadcasting staffs, actors, singers, and artists announced late on Sunday that they will “refuse to participate in any of the 13 outsourced shoots indefinitely until the major broadcasting companies resolve unpaid wage problems and guarantee that there won’t be any relapse of the situation.”
The boycott decision was made on Aug. 27 in an emergency meeting of board of representatives. The body will hold a press conference on Sept. 1 to release all schedules they’re firmly rejecting to participate.

According to the press release, all subcontracted dramas and shows are to take hiatus until the wage issue is resolved. Consequently, viewers inevitably have to go for weeks without KBS 2TV’s popular soap opera “Baker King, Kim Tak-gu,” SBS’ “Giant,” “I Am Legend,” and MBC’s “Gloria,” and “Kim Su-ro.”

“Though some shows don’t have payment issues, the possibility of cases like this occurring in the future is very likely. Unless the companies come up with systematic regulations we can agree on, we will continue our boycotts,” said the press release.

Broadcasters have failed to pay an estimated 4,368 million won in wages to the actors, singers, comedians and others as of July 31.

“Though we’ve tried our best to solve payment problems during the last two years, it was of no avail. Rather, companies and subcontractors have taken advantage of us instead,” said Kim Eung-suk, chairman of the association.

The labor union said that it is willing to continue on with their fight to straighten the abuse of subcontracting systems. At the same time, they are also willing to open themselves up for negotiations and communications anytime, according to the labor union.

src : Korea Times