Hardback
May 15, 2020
9780295747200
English
232
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v2.1 Reference
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May 15, 2020
9780295747217
English
232
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6.00 Inches (US)
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v2.1 Reference

Korean Skilled Workers

Toward a Labor Aristocracy

By Hyung-A Kim
Series edited by Clark W. Sorensen
University of Washington Press
South Korea's triumphant development has catapulted the country's economy to the eleventh largest in the world. Large family-owned conglomerates, or chaebŏls, such as Samsung, Hyundai, and LG, have become globally preeminent manufacturing brands. Yet Korea's highly disciplined, technologically competent skilled workers who built these brands have become known only for their successful labor-union militancy, which in recent decades has been criticized as collective "selfishness" that has allowed them to prosper at the expense of other workers.

Hyung-A Kim tells the story of Korea's first generation of skilled workers in the heavy and chemical industries sector, following their dramatic transition from 1970s-era "industrial warriors" to labor-union militant "Goliat Warriors," and ultimately to a "labor aristocracy" with guaranteed job security, superior wages, and even job inheritance for their children. By contrast, millions of Korea's non-regular employees, especially young people, struggle in precarious and insecure employment.

This richly documented account demonstrates that industrial workers' most enduring goal has been their own economic advancement, not a wider socialist revolution, and shows how these individuals' paths embody the consequences of rapid development.

About the Authors

Hyung-A Kim is associate professor of Korean history and politics at the Australian National University. She is author of Korea's Development under Park Chung Hee: Rapid Industrialization, 1961–1979.

Endorsements

"This thorough analysis of Korea's skilled workers from a historical and sociopolitical perspective will attract much attention from students of labor politics in Asia and other newly industrialized economies."—Hagen Koo, author of Korean Workers: The Culture and Politics of Class Formation
University of Washington Press
Korean Studies of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies

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232 Pages
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232 Pages
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