[Provided by the North Gyeongsang Education Civil Servants' Union]
[Provided by the North Gyeongsang Education Civil Servants' Union]

The North Gyeongsang Province Education Office Civil Servants' Labor Union, known as the North Gyeongsang Education Union, launched its 2026 collective bargaining talks with the North Gyeongsang Provincial Office of Education on Thursday.

The resumption marks the first full bargaining session in 12 years and eight months, since the 2013 round concluded in March 2014.

The talks also carry significance as the first time all three civil servant unions affiliated with the North Gyeongsang Provincial Office of Education have joined a single joint bargaining process.

At the opening session, Provincial Superintendent of Education Im Jong-sik said that management and labor were, at their core, colleagues sharing the same workplace. The union expressed hope that the sentiment would translate into mutual respect and tangible improvements in working conditions.

The union said it plans to negotiate in good faith, grounded in mutual respect and trust, and aims to produce concrete results that civil servants on the ground can feel — rather than agreements reached for their own sake — in order to advance the rights of local government workers and foster a healthier organizational culture.

"Collective bargaining is not a process in which the education office gives something to the union," said Shim Dong-seop, chair of the North Gyeongsang Education Union. "It is a process of thinking together and pooling our wisdom to improve employee welfare and working conditions."

On improving conditions for local civil servants, Shim added, "I hope that the working conditions of North Gyeongsang's local civil servants will be strong enough to stand up anywhere in the country and serve as a standard that other metropolitan and provincial offices of education can look to."


kbj7653@heraldcorp.com