IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecoind/v44y2023i2p432-453.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unions in society, unions in the state: New forms of irregular workers’ movements beyond the factory in South Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Cheol-Sung Lee

    (Sogang University, South Korea)

  • Hyung-Geun Yoo

    (Pusan National University, South Korea)

Abstract

In this study, the authors explore the ways that new forms of labor politics emerge in civil society in the era of flexible labor markets and fragmented workplaces (through outsourcing and subcontracting). First, a theoretical framework is developed that accounts for the formation processes of three modes of irregular, non-standard labor politics: politics of influence, politics of substitution, and politics of occupation. Each of these delineates positional politics of issue-specific threats and alliance, unions’ functional replacement of local civic governance, and unions’ takeover of the state’s institutional space. Then, using unique qualitative field interviews of labor activists and union leaders, a comparative case study is conducted to examine three instances of non-standard workers’ struggles against their employers in South Korean labor politics in the 2000s and the 2010s: the Hyundai Motors Irregular Workers’ Union, the Hope Union, and the Youth Community Union. The study highlights grassroots-based community activism and the institutionalized civil-society space within the state as newly arising forms of labor politics, and discusses their implications in relation to the state, civil society, and partisan politics.

Suggested Citation

  • Cheol-Sung Lee & Hyung-Geun Yoo, 2023. "Unions in society, unions in the state: New forms of irregular workers’ movements beyond the factory in South Korea," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(2), pages 432-453, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:44:y:2023:i:2:p:432-453
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X221075648
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X221075648
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0143831X221075648?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rueda, David, 2005. "Insider–Outsider Politics in Industrialized Democracies: The Challenge to Social Democratic Parties," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 99(1), pages 61-74, February.
    2. Ganz, Marshall Louis, 2000. "Resources and Resourcefulness: Strategic Capacity in the Unionization of California Agriculture, 1959-1966," Scholarly Articles 12641805, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    3. Thelen,Kathleen, 2014. "Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107679566, September.
    4. Thelen,Kathleen, 2014. "Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107053168, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lehner, Lukas & Ramskogler, Paul & Riedl, Aleksandra, 2022. "Begging thy coworker – Labor market dualization and the slow-down of wage growth in Europe," INET Oxford Working Papers 2022-04, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    2. Weisstanner, David, 2019. "Insiders under pressure: Flexible employment and wage inequality," INET Oxford Working Papers 2019-06, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    3. Ochsenfeld, Fabian, 2018. "The Relational Nature of Employment Dualization: Evidence from Subcontracting Establishments," SocArXiv ta4r6, Center for Open Science.
    4. Young-hwan Byun, 2018. "The Type of Right-wing Government and the Decline of Middle-Income Strata in Industrialized Democracies," LIS Working papers 727, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    5. Jens Arnholtz, 2023. "The embedded flexibility of Nordic labor market models under pressure from EU‐induced dualization—The case of posted work in Denmark and Sweden," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(2), pages 372-388, April.
    6. Maarten Keune, 2021. "Inequality between capital and labour and among wage-earners: the role of collective bargaining and trade unions," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 27(1), pages 29-46, February.
    7. Biegert, Thomas, 2017. "Welfare Benefits and Unemployment in Affluent Democracies: The Moderating Role of the Institutional Insider/Outsider Divide," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 82(5), pages 1037-1064.
    8. Werner Eichhorst & Paul Marx, 2021. "How stable is labour market dualism? Reforms of employment protection in nine European countries," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 27(1), pages 93-110, March.
    9. Tomas Berglund & Bengt Furåker, 2016. "Employment protection regulation, trade unions and tenure of employment: An analysis in 23 European countries," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(5-6), pages 492-512, November.
    10. David Weisstanner, 2017. "Dualization and inequality revisited: Temporary employment regulation and middle-class incomes," LIS Working papers 720, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    11. Michael Freedman, 2017. "Are Recent Generations Catching Up or Falling Behind? Trends in Inter-Generational Inequality," LIS Working papers 689, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    12. Brigitte Granville & Jaume Martorell Cruz & Martha Prevezer, 2015. "Elites, Thickets and Institutions: French Resistance versus German Adaptation to Economic Change, 1945-2015," Working Papers 63, Queen Mary, University of London, School of Business and Management, Centre for Globalisation Research.
    13. Leone Leonida & Marianna Marra & Sergio Scicchitano & Antonio Giangreco & Marco Biagetti, 2020. "Estimating the Wage Premium to Supervision for Middle Managers in Different Contexts: Evidence from Germany and the UK," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(6), pages 1004-1026, December.
    14. German Feierherd & Patricio Larroulet & Wei Long, & Nora Lustig, 2021. "The Pink Tide and Inequality in Latin America," Working Papers 2105, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    15. Anne Stevenot & Loris Guery & Geoffrey Wood & Chris Brewster, 2018. "Country of Origin Effects and New Financial Actors: Private Equity Investment and Work and Employment Practices of French Firms," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(4), pages 859-881, December.
    16. Donato Di Carlo, 2020. "Understanding wage restraint in the German public sector: does the pattern bargaining hypothesis really hold water?," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 185-208, May.
    17. Elizabeth Balbachevsky & Helena Sampaio & Cibele Yahn de Andrade, 2019. "Expanding Access to Higher Education and Its (Limited) Consequences for Social Inclusion: The Brazilian Experience," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(1), pages 7-17.
    18. Tom VanHeuvelen & Kathy Copas, 2018. "The Intercohort Dynamics of Support for Redistribution in 54 Countries, 1985–2017," Societies, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-22, August.
    19. Mikkel Mailand, 2024. "Still part of the game—corporatism and political exchanges in two small states," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 368-388, July.
    20. Simon Jäger & Shakked Noy & Benjamin Schoefer, 2022. "The German Model of Industrial Relations: Balancing Flexibility and Collective Action," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 36(4), pages 53-80, Fall.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:44:y:2023:i:2:p:432-453. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ekhist.uu.se/english.htm .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.