Based on the conference presentations
by Lee Young-Soon
Korean Women Workers Association United
Lee Jung-OK
Hyo Sung Women's University
SOUTH KOREA'S EPZs encompass only a small percentage of the country's manufacturing plants and employ relatively few workers. Employment levels reached their peak with 41,518 workers in 1987 and subsequently fell to 21,900 in 1991.
Korea's independent trade union movement (KCTU, or Korean Council of Trade Unions) has grown in size and power since it was established in 1987. KCTU members have successfully organised and won large wage increases. At the same time however, industrial restructuring has taken place and has had profound effects on women workers. The tenuous situation for the women working in the EPZs reflects the general trends and conditions for Korean women workers, but magnified.
Korea's large companies have shifted investment to heavy and high-tech manufacturing like ship-building and chemicals. Job opportunities in garment and semi-conductor factories have been shrinking.
Many smaller companies have closed their domestic plants and relocated to other Asian countries with lower labour costs, particularly China, Vietnam and Indonesia. Meanwhile, large companies have invested in factory automation, swapping machines for people.
Women who lost their manufacturing jobs are facing difficulties finding new work. Many have been forced into the informal sector and are now stall keepers, vendors, and home-based workers. The decreased opportunities for women have weakened the power and participation of women in the labour force and in the trade union movement.
Women's power in the manufacturing sector is further weakened by the use of part-time, married workers. In 1989, approximately 50% of married women were in the labour force. As of 1991, 74% of married women were in the labour force.
To avoid paying higher wages, companies have increased their use of part-time and married women workers instead of employing full-time women workers. They are more difficult to organise and are typically not active in the trade union movement.
Companies have also increased their use of foreign workers. Approximately lOO,OOO foreign workers, classified as "trainees," are imported into the country so that they can be paid substandard wages. They are usually hired for the least desirable jobs. They are not part of the trade union movement simply because they are not organised. They are not entitled to regular workers' benefits and have no legal protections. Only very recently has the govemment decreed that they must be entitled to full compensation in case of industrial accidents.
Changes in the political situation have had an unexpected effect on the labour movement. The new "civilian" govemment has been somewhat efective in getting workers, especially white collar workers, to "cooperate" in order to maintain global competitiveness.
Although manual labourers have continued to demand higher wages, white collar workers are beginning to accept the idea that if they demand higher wages the nation will lose its global competitiveness and they will ultimately lose their jobs.
Under the military regime, all sectors of labour worked closely together against the government. But since 1992, when the transition to the civilian government occurred, workers have been less united than before. The KCTU is working to rebuild and revitalise the democratic trade union movement so that new strategies for struggle can overcome these challenges.
FREE EXPORT ZONES
Iri
Masan
Industrial Estates (29): Inch-on, Pusan, and Goomi
MINIMUM WAGES
US$ 13,94/hour (applies to workers inside and outside the EPZs)>
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
2,0% (nov.1994)
POPULATION
44,7 million
UNIONSATION RATE
1,667,000 415,6%7 419937
17,5% 4MEN7
8,8% 4WOMEN7
ECONOMIC GROWTH
7,3% (1995)
PER CAPITA GDP (PPP)
US$ 9,810
INFLATION RATE (CPI)
4,5%
FOREIGN DEBT
US$ 54,2 bilion