Resistance Up In The Sky: New Forms Of Labor Protest In Neoliberal Korea

The continued rise of Korean economy in the world stage is widely recognized by the presence of global brand-name products such as Samsung Galaxy phones, Hyundai Sonata, and even by the phenomenal world-hit of Psy’s “Gangnam style.” However, on the other side of this triumphant story of Asian capitalism, there is Jin-sook Kim, a female labor unionist, who protested on top of an industrial crane at the height of a 15-story building for 309 days. In a vibrant economy where automobile exports contribute a lion’s share, the massive layoff at Ssangyong Motors pushed 24 auto workers to death either by suicide or by post-traumatic illness. These are unparalleled cases of labor resistance, which merit a serious scholarly examination.

This study focuses on the sky struggle (haneul toojeng in Korean), like the one staged by Jin-sook Kim, which represents a new form of labor resistance in contemporary Korea. In this paper, I first present data on traditional labor disputes and the new sky protest and introduce three major labor struggles - Kim’s sky resistance at Hanjin Heavy Industry, the suicidal protest of laid-off workers at Ssangyong Motors, and non-regular workers’ struggle at Hyundai Motors. Through these instances of labor contention, I discuss how the mode of labor protest has changed in Korea in recent decades. In the second section, I explicate the structural and political conditions that gave rise to this changed form of labor unrest by focusing on Korean economy’s neoliberal transformation, the deepening fracture in the labor market, and democratic institutions devoid of labor representation. The paper closes by discussing the theoretical implications of these labor struggles in Korea, especially in enlightening our understanding of contemporary class conflict and collective action in a democratic society.