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Labor Control and Labor Relations in the Maquiladora Industry: A Study of Korean Maquiladora Firms

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  • Donmoon Cho

Abstract

Although the protracted labor dispute in Hanyong attracted public attention, labor relations in Korean maquiladora firms have been relatively unexamined thus far. This study identifies labor relations in the Korean maquiladora firms as a typical despotic mode of domination, which is closer to the West coast type than to the Mexican gulf type. To explain the selection and reproduction of the despotic mode of domination, this study analyzes everyday practices of labor control on the shop floor. Korean managers exercise various types of labor control: the consensual type, mobilizing consent on the part of workers; the remunerative type, mobilizing the sense of rewarding; and the repressive type, mobilizing the fear of oppression and retaliation. None of the three types of labor control work effectively and workers remain dissatisfied with the labor conditions and the way labor control is exercised. What the Korean firms choose to do is to oppress worker discontent and prevent it from developing into mass mobilization and upheaval. This is why the despotic mode of labor relations takes shape and reproduces itself in the Korean maquiladora firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Donmoon Cho, 2001. "Labor Control and Labor Relations in the Maquiladora Industry: A Study of Korean Maquiladora Firms," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 4(2), pages 61-87, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:intare:v:4:y:2001:i:2:p:61-87
    DOI: 10.1177/223386590100400204
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    1. Kopinak, Kathryn, 1997. "Desert Capitalism: What are the Maquiladoras?," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9781551640914, June.
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