작성자: 최정윤, Tannith Kriel

What drove Korea's school meal workers out of the kitchen?

기사 요약: 학교 급식실 노동자들이 파업에 나서 학생들이 대체식을 먹는 가운데, 노동자들은 낮은 임금과 강도 높은 업무가 자신들의 건강까지 위협하고 있다고 주장했다.

[1] School cooks and other nonregular school staff began a nationwide walkout last week, calling for improved wages, pay during school breaks and better welfare. But the workers say these demands, while important, only skim the surface of what pushed thousands to walk out of Korea’s schools.

walkout: 파업 (=strike)

A walkout is a spontaneous or planned protest where workers leave their jobs together, while a strike is a more formal, organized work stoppage, often with a specific union vote and no set end date

skim: 훑어보다, 표면을 스치다

[2] The school staff strike has been sparked by a deeper crisis, they say — one shaped by toxic working environments that treat the workers responsible for feeding Korea’s children as second-class citizens.

treat: 어떤 태도로 대하다, 대접하다 / 선물, 간식

[3] The workers say they have suffered years of breathing carcinogenic fumes, fainting in overheated kitchens, returning to work with lingering injuries and watching coworkers fall ill, sometimes fatally.

carcinogenic: 발암성의, 암을 유발하는

faint: 기절하다

lingering: 오래 끄는, 사라지지 않는

[4] They cite the case of a Seoul school cafeteria worker in her 50s, who learned she had lung cancer in 2023 after a CT scan. Doctors suggested it was caused by cooking fumes generated during frying and high-heat food preparation. The World Health Organization classifies these cooking emissions as probably carcinogenic.

cite: 예를 들다

기사 원문: https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10622632