Korean Job Discussion Forums

[midwest]

Objective: This thread wishes to discuss wages. A lot of you get angry over discussions of wages. However, every society of workers in developed countries has associations that track wage, benefit, and working conditions of workers in numerous occupations. The Hogwon Associations are there to protect their interests. Therefore, the discussion of wages is to protect ours. While I am not volunteering, I would like to see an association of ESL Teachers, created, so that we too can use the information to empower our lives, income, and working conditions.

Theory time! Philosopher, Michel Foucault, in his work, �Discipline and Punish,� described the way the birth of the prison occurred. The theory of prison developed through a society�s use of plague control. It used quarantines, workers, and a sentry-guard at the gates of the village to prevent the movement of people. Prisons developed around this central idea, or the Panopticon. The prisoner (mental patient, or even sinner) is rendered to state of self-regulation because he is aware that he is always being watched through surveillance, shuttered blinds, and a central tower. The prisoner never knows when he is being watched, and therefore regulates his behavior.

Foucault claimed, that the future of this physical control would occur through lighter and faster media, or through electronic media. We are witness to the birth of the scan card, and other electronic surveillance.
My point: To control others means that you must watch what they do, and you must also do so when they are not looking.

To use surveys (surveillance) is a way to create information that can be used to assist your goals. One association I belong to, does exactly that every year, it sends a survey and asks very specific questions about the job and your wages. Therefore, we as a group of migrant workers, needs to have more information to make us stronger in the societies in which we work.

Gijis de Vries once said: �If information ends up in the wrong hands, the lives of people very often are immediately at risk.� While I am not suggesting that we hurt someone, you should also understand that if information ends up in our hands to benefit us, it does change the balance of power in those individuals who seek to reduce our wages, position, or bargaining power.

So, if information is power, and we can benefit by creating our associations, as do the groups who employ us, we can only improve our lives.

Of course, it is logical that some of you are not interested in this idea. Maybe you are just doing this as a gig for one year, but many are not. I thought some of you might like to give this idea further thought.

[shifty]

Thank you for the warning!