labour
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Preponderance of Workers
When I’m in South Korea what always surprises me is the number of employees in department store food corners, usually women middle-aged or older. They welcome customers, let them taste dumplings, tofu and so on. It almost seems there is one person for each shelf of goods. I don’
When the Foreign Husband Is a Nepalese Labor Activist
Udaya Rai is a Nepalese citizen and president of the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants’ Trade Union (MTU), one of the most visible organizations to fight for the rights of migrant workers in South Korea. I recently profiled him for Equal Times, a publication of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). But our
Salt Flowers: Glimpses of South Korea’s Labour Landscape
Sweat stains on an old pair of overalls, or sweat stains on a fine shirt. South Koreans call them both “salt flowers”: beautiful traces of hard labour. It is a symbol of labour’s immeasurable value, beyond the understanding of those who never work and sweat. Calling a sweat stain
Disposable Workers of Hyper-Capitalist Korea
A call-center manager beats her subordinates with an umbrella at an office in Jongno, Seoul. She slaps them in the face over and over. She pushes them around till they cry. All for not selling enough magazine subscriptions. As a contributor to the publication of the International Trade Union Confederation,