Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bejarano-korea]

This computer won't let me paste the link... but an interesting article anyway.



The South Korean Model of Labor Repression


THE KOREAN INVESTMENT drive in Guatemala is based on a brutal system of labor control which closely resembles the repressive industrial relations found in Korea. Korean managers claim their repressive management techniques are necessary to teach Guatemalan workers - the majority of whom are young women - the "work habits" of Korean employees. A Korean official explains, "They [Guatemalan workers] have their own work habits but we have Korean habits and discipline. For example, Guatemalan workers must learn to show up on time, work as long as necessary and be obedient to their superiors. The job of Korean technicians is to train Guatemalan workers in Korean habits and discipline. Soon, most Guatemalan workers will be working according to our discipline and work habits."
A manager of Korean-owned Ace International in Guatemala City claims that the worker behavior which most troubles his staff is the excessive time employees spend in factory bathrooms. He attributes these visits to irresponsible behavior and laziness, adding, "I don't understand why they would want to use them [the bathrooms] anyway. They smell so bad. I am disgusted by them." A Guatemalan supervisor at the factory offers some insight into why the workers spend time in the bathrooms: "After a Korean supervisor scolds and humiliates a worker, she runs to the bathroom to cry and regain her composure."

Disobedience, broadly defined as any divergence from management's dictates, is categorically prohibited in Korean factories. For Korean managers, regimentation depends on total conformity; every command, no matter how trivial, must be followed to sustain the system. A Guatemalan manager at the Korean-owned Modas Del Este garment assembly factory points to the rigidity of this policy: "We even lose good workers because of disobedient behavior. If a worker fails to follow a supervisor's command, she will go, no matter how productive."

Conformity is achieved through progressive punishment and extreme pressure to produce. The severity of punishment generally increases with the cost and/or frequency of the offense. If a worker turns to speak to a neighbor, a Korean supervisor may yell at her to return to her proper position. Or, if nearby, the supervisor may place his hands on the worker's shoulder and roughly guide her back into place. Some supervisors routinely rap workers heads with their hands and knuckles for such minor acts of misconduct. The line between these relatively innocuous punishments and more violent and humiliating ones is easily and often breached.

"Misconduct" that is often met with more serious punishment includes eating at the work station, repeated talking or movement, or a sewing mistake. Most frequently, supervisors scream at the offender, calling her stupid or slow. In most Korean factories, each day at least one or two operators endure a supervisor's wrath while her peers look on. "When a supervisor yells at a worker, they do it at her worktable," says a worker. "The rest of us just pray we are not the next one."

Korean supervisors and managers also regularly practice corporeal punishment against workers. While physical punishment is most commonly reserved for the most serious offenses, it is not unusual for supervisors to strike workers for routine errors. For example, some workers report that supervisors grab or shake an employee's neck or hair if she is caught talking for a second or third time. Other supervisors slam sticks on the workers hands, or throw pieces of cloth in workers faces. In one factory, workers report that female Korean supervisors squeeze workers breasts as punishment.

The Korean system of labor control also involves a relentless pressure to produce. Explains one female worker, "They holler, 'Faster, faster!' ' Make haste' They push us. How can I understand their language? I try to explain that I don't understand their explanations. They just keep yelling,' Faster, faster' but we are human beings, not robots that simply work faster by pushing a button."

Organized workers pose the only serious threat to Korean-style production. On at least a half dozen occasions, enraged by working conditions and abusive treatment at a Korean factory, workers approached trade unions for representation. However, on each occasion, a union failed to materialize. The Korean Ambassador Wung-Sik Kung openly admits that the Guatemalan government "arranged" the settlement of several of these disputes.

-K.P.

[spliff]

If they don't like working for Koreans then why do they?

[bejarano-korea]

[xtchr]

Where is that article from?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

It would be hard to believe were it not for the fact that the way the factory workers are treated is so similar to how Korean students are treated.

[DaeguKid]

[bejarano-korea]

[GoldMember]

In Korea the ends justifies the means, simple as that, however there is only one small precondition. Only if the end benefits Korea or Koreans.

[Ilsanman]

I heard before that Latin Americans in general are a little bit lax, especially about meeting timings. So I understand the need to teach them to show up on time. But the total conformity? Sounds way too familiar...

[winterwawa]

[seoulsucker]

[GoldMember]

Actually Korea IS the center of the Universe. Look at any Korean Geography text book, and their it is, Korea at the center of the Universe.
Well planet at least.

[komerican]

Yeah but economically advanced people have been taking advantage of economically less advantaged people for a long time now. It�s still going on. The US was built on slavery. Go to certain city neighborhoods in the US now and you'll see ILLEGAL immigrants from Mexico and south America and central America standing on main street USA street corners. They're waiting to get illegal day jobs that pay them an exploitive small wage. They certainly don't get any health care. Read a book called "Fast Food Nation" and find out about US multinational corps that employ illegal workers and treat them pretty badly, sexual harassment, abuse, no medical, etc.

If anyone has a plan on how to fix some of these capitalistic excesses then I'd like to know them or are these abuses only interesting when Asians do them?

[GoldMember]

Yea but..Yadda yadda yadda- typical reaction from a Korean.
Accuse whitey of racism, or the but you people do this line, or you people did this 200 years ago....
Fine do that if you wish, deflect blame. however Korea and Koreans are slowly getting a bad reputation. Blame others for that bad reputation, but it doesn't address the issue. Can it all be racism towards Koreans or is there possibly some grain of truth?
Koreans are not doing a good job interacting on the world stage.
My personal view is that it is due to the Nationalistic and Racist brainwashing that goes on in Korean schools.
Koamerican, if you want to make Korea a better place and I hope you do, and to improve the reputation of Korea maybe you can devote some attention to riding the Nationalistic garbage that is taught in schools in Korea.
Some of your comments are actually very well thought out, this one however, is not one of the better ones.

[spliff]