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18 - A Critical Assessment of Democratic Labor Unionism in South Korea from a Feminist Standpoint

from Part IV - Country and Regional Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2022

By
Jaok Kwon
Edited by
Angela B. Cornell  and
Mark Barenberg
Angela B. Cornell
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Mark Barenberg
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
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Summary

Through the Candlelight movement, which led to the resignation of the former President due to corruption, a younger generation – which is the main victim of the neoliberal restructuring in South Korea – has raised fundamental questions concerning the definition of the “democracy” of the labor unionism. This paper argues that the “democratic norm” in Korean labor unionism should be assessed critically in terms of both the meaning and possibility of “collectiveness,” “militant organizational culture,” and the scope of “democratic value.” This chapter further maintains that these current critical questions on the (dis)continuity and sustainability of the democratic labor unionism correspond with feminist ideology, along with the growing diversity in the labor market in South Korea.

Keywords

democratic labor unionismfeminist ideologyCandlelight movementSouth Korea
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Labor and Democracy , pp. 293 - 304
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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