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Vol.61 No.4
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Labor Movements in Neoliberal Korea: Organizing Precarious Workers and Inventing New Repertoires of Contention

Korea Journal / Korea Journal, (P)0023-3900; (E)2733-9343
2021, v.61 no.4, pp.44-74
https://doi.org/10.25024/kj.2021.61.4.44
(University of Toronto)
(2021). Labor Movements in Neoliberal Korea: Organizing Precarious Workers and Inventing New Repertoires of Contention. Korea Journal, 61(4), 44-74, https://doi.org/10.25024/kj.2021.61.4.44
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Abstract

This article begins by chronicling the structural changes introduced to the labor market over the last two decades, which generated diverse forms of stratification among workers as well as new labor grievances. It examines how Korean workers responded to the neoliberal labor market conditions by pursuing new strategies of organizing and engaging in novel protest repertoires in their resistance to employment insecurity, precarity, and discrimination. Comparing cases of labor struggles with modest achievements with those without, this study suggests that the construction of broad social solidarity among stratified workers, national labor federations, and civil society contributes to the enhancement of labor’s cause. Yet, corporations emboldened with the freedom of spatial mobility and diverse methods of extreme outsourcing continue to pose detrimental limitations to labor movements’ ability to achieve meaningful gains despite their dire resistance.

keywords
Labor movements, precarious workers, protest repertoires, neoliberalism, Korea

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