Korea

  • Protesting Speed-Up, Korean Auto Worker Sets Self on Fire

    A South Korean Hyundai Motor worker set himself afire Sunday after management responded to his request to slow the pace of production by stepping up discipline. The 44-year-old unionist, Shin Sung-hun, is in critical condition.

  • Korean Sit-In atop Crane Defeats Job Cuts

    After 309 days sitting in on top of a 115-foot shipyard crane, a South Korean welder has won an agreement that her multinational employer will rehire 94 laid-off workers.

  • South Korea Sit-In Connects to U.S. ‘Occupiers’

    As the U.S. ‘occupy’ movement struggles to hold its ground, protesters are connecting to South Korean activists who see their fight against out-of-control corporate power as tapping the same vein of frustration and outrage.

  • Koreans Brave Pepper Spray, Thugs to Rally at Crane Sit-In

    About 15,000 rallied in the South Korean port city of Busan last weekend to support a woman welder whose lone sit-in atop a shipyard crane has lasted 208 days.

  • Video: Woman Welder Sits In Atop Crane to Protest Job Cuts

    Nine thousand college students, labor activists, and human rights advocates from across South Korea gathered Saturday to support a woman welder who has been staging a lone sit-in since January on top of a 115-foot shipyard crane. But on Tuesday Kim Jin-suk tweeted that security guards had begun to deploy a safety net around her crane, the usual sign of a plan to take her out by force, and yesterday they cut off her food supplies.

  • With UAW’s King for Cover, Obama Backhands Labor in Korea Trade Deal
    Mischa Gaus
    Dec 17 2010 - 1:09am

    President Obama finalized the largest trade deal since NAFTA on December 3. It looks like he cut and pasted the same corporate-friendly script he inherited from previous administrations, Democrat and Republican alike.

  • With UAW's King for Cover, Obama Backhands Labor in Korea Trade Deal
    Mischa Gaus
    Dec 8 2010 - 12:54pm

    President Obama's trade deal with Korea looks like a cut and paste of the same corporate-friendly script he inherited. But this agreement comes with the blessing of the UAW's Bob King. Will other unions rebel?

  • Satellite Radio Makers Hungry for Justice

    Body:

    Subcontracted South Korean electronics workers need your support in their struggle to regain their jobs and win decent work conditions from their employer, Kiryung Electronics. After a 67-day hunger strike that ended in mid-August, workers continue to insist the company rehire those it fired three years ago for organizing a union.

    The workers make satellite radios that Kiryung sells to Sirius Satellite Radio in the U.S.

    Kiryung employs full-time workers alongside temporary “dispatch” workers. The temps, who receive much lower wages, are paid by dispatch agencies rather than Kiryung. They make a penny above minimum wage and work 60-70 hours a week.

    Expiration Date:
    Sun, 11/30/2008 - 12:59pm