Asiana Employees to Hold a Rally at Gwanghwamun Square on July 6

Employees of the Kumho Asiana Group, including Asiana Airlines, are pushing for a protest at the heart of downtown Seoul on July 6 to reveal chairman Park Sam-gu’s alleged abuse of power and irregularities.

The employees’ collective action against the group chairman was triggered by Asiana's in-flight meal service fiasco. It attracts attention as it may lead to the full revelation of corruption like the case of Korean Air, Asiana Airline's main rival.

Asiana officials said on July 4 that the planned rally was announced in an anonymous KakaoTalk chat room, which was created by employees of the Kumho Asiana Group after the in-flight meal mess. The chat room was named “Let’s not be silent.”

The announcement said there would be a rally at Gwanghwamun Square on June 6-8 to bring to light the alleged abuse of power and corruption of chairman Park Sam-gu.

The first anonymous chat room reached the limit of 1,000 people in the morning of July 4, so another anonymous chat room was created.

In addition to revealing the cause of the in-flight meal service disruption and the poor response of the company, these employees intend to unveil the group’s alleged unfair transactions with subcontractors, illegal support for subsidiaries, and chairman Park’s alleged swindling of company money.

Employees are pushing for the first rally in front of the statue of Admiral Yi Sun-shin at Gwanghwamun Square at 6 p.m. on July 6. They plan to report the rally to the police.

They decided to wear masks, Asiana uniforms or black clothes, as in the rally of Korean Air Employees' Association, to hide their identities.

The black clothes are to remember the recent death of the CEO of a subcontractor, which delivers meals to Asiana Airlines.

The deceased CEO's family members and company employees reported to the police that he seemed to have made the extreme decision after being pressured for the supply of in-flight meals.

Employees allege that Asiana Airlines pushed to change its meal suppliers because it was related to attracting 160 billion won worth of investment. The in-flight meal crisis was caused amid a rush to change the suppliers. They are planning to focus on Park’s managerial irregularities.