A beautiful flower garden steals people's hearts. Behind the vibrant, colorful petals lies the captivating power of a gardener's hard-earned sweat.
Park Yu-jin, a Seoul Metropolitan Council member (Democratic Party of Korea, Eunpyeong District 3), has devoted four years as a garden tender working to bloom what she calls the "everything-leads-to-jobs flower." Why does she call jobs flowers? What does "everything-leads-to" mean?
"The most cherished flower in our lives is the job flower. I will move the lowest and weakest flowers into the sunlight first and water them."
On her first day back at the 12th Seoul Metropolitan Council as a reelected member, Park once again emphasized "everything leads to jobs." She compared jobs to fragile flowers.
School cafeteria workers who receive minimum wage for only 10 months a year and cannot avoid two months of unemployment. Facility staff at Oh! Jaemidong in Chungmuro, who ironically faced closure due to the opening of the Seoul Cinema Center. Korean language teachers suffering from low wages of less than 20 million won a year and unstable employment. Call center workers enduring emotional labor while facing insecurity from indirect employment...
Park introduced them as fragile flowers that undeniably exist in our society.
When it comes to jobs, the first word that comes to mind is "creation." That is because governments and local authorities rush to tout it as an achievement. But she argues this must not degenerate into a political tool that belittles the importance of "gardening" — protecting the jobs of Korea's estimated 22 million workers, moving them to better sunlight, and watering them.
"I will be a grassroots council member of a nation of sovereign citizens." Park believes that improving precarious jobs holds value no less important than creating them.
Building job quality — good jobs — is closer to "nurturing" than "creation." Since stable, good jobs will never simply pop up out of nowhere, it seems only natural that Park's pledge to "move the lowest and weakest flowers into the sunlight first and water them" resonates all the more.
The reason Park emphasizes jobs is that she was an office worker for 22 years. Korea's 22 million office workers are pressured to pursue only speed, results, efficiency, and profit. Park, once one of them, has now transformed into an elected public official who protects workers' jobs and helps them bloom.
"Jobs are the most important foundation determining human dignity and self-reliance. I will raise not only the quantity but also the quality of jobs to create an environment where workers are respected."
Now in her fifth year as a Seoul council member, Park has completed her transformation. She cited "efficiency" and "public interest" as the biggest differences between the private and public sectors. While results and speed matter in corporations, she says procedures and public interest must be emphasized in the public sphere.
Through four years of council work, she came to feel even more deeply the value of the public good and the importance of citizens' trust. As a representative example, she cited Oh! Jaemidong, the independent film space in Chungmuro. When the existing space faced termination of its operations and its staff's employment during the creation of the Seoul Cinema Center, she took on the problem through an administrative audit, ultimately securing an extension of operations and retention of jobs.
"Building new facilities is important, but protecting the cultural assets and community values that citizens have built up over a long time is also an important role of public administration," Park said.
As key job-related tasks for the 12th council, she cited improving the treatment of Korean language teachers and the direct employment of call center workers at Seoul city-affiliated institutions.
She pointed out that while demand for Korean language education has surged with the increase in international students, Korean language teachers have been left in an unstable employment structure. Park plans to work on establishing an institutional foundation that can guarantee the status and treatment of Korean language teachers.
She also focused on the direct employment of call center workers at Seoul city-affiliated institutions, including the Seoul Housing and Urban Development Corporation, Seoul Metro, and the Seoul Credit Guarantee Foundation. She explained that call center workers, the key personnel connecting Seoul citizens with these institutions, must be guaranteed a stable employment environment in order to improve the quality of public services.
"Direct employment is not an issue for workers alone but a condition for providing citizens with more stable and higher-quality services," Park said. "I will work to ensure that the direct employment promised under the Park Won-soon administration is no longer delayed."
She also revealed plans to expand public policies using artificial intelligence (AI) and eco-friendly technology. She is reviewing measures to introduce biodegradable hygiene products at nursing hospitals and care facilities to reduce waste and support the growth of startups with related technologies.
She also aims to enable early detection of suspected lung cancer signs with only chest X-rays using AI image analysis technology. The expectation is that if costs are lowered and efficiency raised, the technology can be introduced to public healthcare settings to take responsibility for citizens' health.
"Innovative technologies must be brought into the field, leading to the protection of workers' health, improved care environments, and the creation of quality jobs," Park stressed. "If Seoul actively adopts innovative technologies in public services, it can catch two rabbits at once: improving citizens' quality of life and growing businesses."
Park also shared her views on major pending issues in Seoul. She cited the TBS crisis, the Han River Bus project, and the repeal of the Student Rights Ordinance as priority matters to be set right. Rather than unnecessary political disputes, she believes efforts should be concentrated on practical action, such as ordinance revisions, to build institutional foundations.
Park Yu-jin, the "job flower gardener" who prefers to be called an elected public official rather than a politician, working to bloom the "everything-leads-to-jobs flower." Her confession — "I want to be a grassroots council member who supports citizens' lives rather than a flashy politician" — is stirring the hearts of Seoul citizens.
