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338 N O T E S T O P A G E S 2 0 8 – 2 0 9 Confederation of Trade Unions (the Chŏn’guk Minju Nodong Chohap Ch’ong Yŏnmaeng, or KCTU), declared at its first assembly that it would specifically target nonunion Samsung plants in its upcoming organizing drive. At that time only four of fifty-five Samsung companies had unions (organizing 3,448 employees out of Samsung’s approximately 200,000 total employees). Three of the unions—Samsung Life, Samsung Precision Chemical , and Samsung Securities—were preexisting unions at companies that Samsung bought. Only workers at the Samsung-owned newspaper Chungang ilbo were successful in creating a union during the 1987 strikes. See “Samsung mu nojo kiro e sŏda” (No-union Samsung at crossroads) in Han Kyŏre Sinmunsa, Han kyŏre 21, no. 110 (May 30, 1996): 42–47. 35 The electronics industry is classified as a heavy industry. For the Korean classification of “light” and “heavy” manufacturing, based on the Industrial Classification Index of the Korean Census Bureau, see Eun Mee Kim, “From Dominance to Symbiosis” (Ph.D. dissertation, Brown University, 1987), 100. 36 On the YH incident and other labor struggles that affected the political climate of the time, see Ok-jie Lee, Han’guk yŏsŏng nodongja undongsa 1 (The history of the Korean women workers’ movement, vol. 1); Han’guk Kidokkyo Kyohoe Hyŏbŭihoe, ed., 1970–yŏndae nodong hyŏnjang kwa chŭngŏn (Labor scenes and testimony, the 1970s); and Koo, Korean Workers, 89–92. 37 The extremely violent and inhumane nature of labor repression in the 1970s and 1980s is well captured in Palais, “Labor,” and Ogle, South Korea. 38 See Table 2–2, which shows the fluctuation of union membership and the organizational rate from 1963 to 1988, in Pak Tŏkche and Pak Kisŏng, Han’guk ŭi nodong chohap 1 (Trade unions in Korea, vol. 1), 31–32. 39 Metal workers were the forerunners of this new minju union movement among heavy-industry male workers. Workers at a machinery company, T’ongil Ltd., had already been active in the struggle to democratize their union by 1983. A turning point in male workers’ resurging activism came when autoworkers of Daewoo Motors won a big strike in April 1985. A strike at Daewoo Heavy Industries shipyard followed soon after the Daewoo autoworkers’ strike, but failed due to a division between conciliatory union leadership and radical rank-and-filers. But efforts to democratize the union continued. Workers at Han’guk Heavy Industries Corporation struggled to form a union but failed in 1985, and Yŏnhap Steel workers carried on a sixty-seven-day labor dispute in 1986. In March 1987 workers from Hyundai Heavy Electrical Equipment Corporation and in April workers N O T E S T O P A G E 2 1 0 339 from Hyundai Motors refused lunch as a way of protesting low wages and discriminatory treatment of production workers. 40 The South Korean economy was enjoying a boom by 1987. Growth rates of real GDP ranged from 12 to 13 percent from 1986 to 1988. Labor productivity at firms listed on the Korean Stock Exchange increased 13.4 percent, while net profits soared 32.8 percent during 1986. Net profits showed an especially spectacular jump of 394 percent in metal industries in the same year, but wages at establishments that had one hundred or more workers rose only 6.4 percent in 1986. By the end of April 1987 the figure was running at 7.7 percent. By June 1987 work hours in manufacturing had increased to 243 hours and 48 minutes per month, up by 7 hours and 36 minutes from 1986. Korea Labor Institute, 1992–yŏn KLI haeoe nodong t’onggye (1992 KLI overseas labor statistics), 19; and Han’guk Kidokkyo Sahoe Munje Yŏn’guwŏn (hereafter, Kisayŏn), ed., ’87 nodong sahoe sajŏng (1987 situation of labor community), 12–13. 41 On the minjung movement in South Korea and its empowering influence on the labor movement, see Koo, Korean Workers, 142–46. 42 This phenomenon was also occurring with similar effects on labor militancy in other rapidly industrializing nations, such as Brazil and South Africa. For case studies of Brazilian and South African labor movements, see Seidman, Manufacturing Militance; Keck, Workers’ Party and Democratization in Brazil; and French, Brazilian Workers’ ABC. Ulsan, by the late 1980s, had the highest ratio of manufacturing...

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