The Plight of South Korea's Labor Movement

Ah, one of the topics I find most fascinating written by one of the foremost authority on the issue.

In an article titled Labor Movement in Korea Losing Steam (Insight into Korea, Herald Media 2007), University of Hawaii at Manoa professor Hagen Koo (pictured) painted a picture of Korea's labor movement that is vastly different from general perceptions.

Globally, South Korea is known for its aggressive and militant labor movement and its "endemic strikes."

"At a time when organized labor in most advanced industrialized countries is severely weakened and remains in the doldrums, South Korean labor seems rather unique in demonstrating fresh militancy and class solidarity backed by powerful unions located in heavy and chemical industries."

Foreign investors are said to be "afraid" of the powerful unions when considering whether or not to invest in South Korea, while international labor groups "show great respect for the Korean labor movement in playing a leading role in fighting neoliberal globalization."

However, the reality, according to Koo is that even though Korea's large unions are indeed militant, they hardly make up a strong and cohesive union movement.

The movement currently represents no more than 11 per cent of the active labor force, and union membership is disproportionately made up of employees of larger firms, leaving unprotected the majority of the workforce at smaller enterprises.

Also excluded is the rapidly growing number of irregular workers who now comprise more than half of the national workforce.

Although there is a strong push for building industry unions, the basic structure of Korean unions is that of enterprise unions, "which make it difficult to achieve broad solidarity among workers in diverse job conditions."

"Labor leadership at the national level appears hopelessly divided along ideological and factional lines, failing to offer an effective strategy to deal with serious structural problems faced by the working class in this age of globalism."

Worsening the situation are widespread public dissatisfaction with the militant strategies adopted by large unions in their wage negotiations, coupled with frequent revelations of corruption and violence within union leadership.

With declining public support, and with growing internal division, Koo concluded that the current South Korean labor movement "faces a serious crisis of identity and class solidarity."