Working-Class Politics in Reform Democracy in South Korea

Abstract

This paper addresses the decline of organized labor following the 1987 labor dispute in the transition to democracy, and focuses on the transformation of labor orientation from political to pragmatic interest. It is notable that Korea's organized labor is characteristic of "dual failure" in improving organizational cohesiveness and political power in the transition to democracy. This paper attempts to reinterpret the 'decline' of organized labor as a symptom of union's strategic adjustment to changing environments. As with the inauguration of the civilian government, organized labor enters the phase to learn how to. operate unions in a democratic way, turning from the phase to mobilize worker militancy.