Korean Job Discussion Forums

[hang10]

Nothing is stronger than the union. Wheres our union?

GEPIK? -CRAP.

lets all organise a strike action

Its time for the Revolution! Viva la Rev!!!!!

[lifeinkorea]

Call that lady in the pic, maybe she can be our leader.

[some waygug-in]

There is only one thing that will help to change the situation for English teachers in Korea, and that is if people just stop coming here. Then maybe Koreans will realize they have to improve things if they want people to come.

Looking at the forum, it seems that's not going to happend any time soon.

Looks like hoards of newbies eager to get here and as long as that continues, nothing will change.

[Tobias]

A union? What a laughable notion. You ARE talking about a high-turnover industry, an industry in which the 'me-me-me, *beep*-everybody-else' mentality reigns.

If a union were to be established it look like this:

A few people would be doing all the busywork making the union happen, while the far majority would be mooching off the hard work and not contributing. If they were expected to pay union dues, they'd be bitching about it and refusing to pay. Such a regime does not a good union make, at least not a union that will endure. It'd actually be a nightmare for those trying hard to make it work.

[soviet_man]

As far as strikes go, here is what I think:

- Start by talking to other teachers one-on-one about the issue.

- Then if the issue is still not resolved, call a meeting of all teachers at your school, excluding the manager/s, preferably off-site.

- Then you can collectively appoint someone to go to speak to management.

- I mean you don't just go from zero to strike. You have to try to resolve issues in an organized way step by step before escalating problems to a strike. You won't get support for a strike unless other options have been exhausted.

[lifeinkorea]

[Tobias]

Some points to ponder:

1. Very few people care about TESOL enough to exert the effort required to make a union work. People who plan on doing this long-term can be relied on, but what of those who are in it for only a year or two?

2. Different bosses have different styles and knowledge levels here. Some will be good to work for and will obey the law. Others....well, they look at the law as something to be broken and the white face as someone to be abused. Going on strike en-masse to send a message to the thugs will harm the good bosses.

3. If you're humming along just fine at your job, not causing problems nor experiencing problems, and you are instructed by the union to go on strike, what would you do?

4. Would the union ensure every teacher meets some sort of minimum teaching ability? If so, who decides what the minimum is? Some teachers cause problems because of inadequate teaching ability, inadequate hygiene, et al. Would the union serve as a 'gatekeeper' to weed out these people? If a teacher causes problems for a school, the school will probably cause problems for him. I'm not going on strike over somebody's getting bad treatment because he lays out drunk or doesn't bathe properly. Would you? Clearly some kind of gatekeeping role would have to be played.

5. What if I, a member of the union, work at a school with three other white teachers, teachers who aren't union members, and I'm instructed to go on strike? Do I walk and leave my teaching duties to my colleagues? Why should they pick up my slack?

[red_devil]

[hang10]

[DC in Suwon]

can you honestly blame anyone who has the "me-me-me" attitude? The last feeling you get when you come to this message board is that of unity. What a crock. I think most people are going to Korea to get away from their present environment. Why start a union/strike and get in more drama? I want to be unknown in Korea, except for those I work with and those I like to be around.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Communism never helped anybody. Except for the guys at the top (the union leaders). Take responsibility for your own outcomes in life rather than leaving it up to someone else.

All a union would get us would be less total jobs for less pay.

[lebowski]

[Tobias]

Let's work on this first:

Compile a complete, up-to-date guidebook that provides answers to (*choke*) all our questions about working here. It could also list important tips and maybe could even include a blacklist of the bad apples and even a 'whitelist' of good employers.

Get that together first, and then start the union.

[TheBulimicFatGuy]

I never had any interest in starting a union and still don't. Here's a good example of why. Some years ago I was working at a hogwon with 2 other foreigner teachers. The hogwon had the habit of coercing us into working overtime hours for which we were paid at a rate significantly less than our normal hourly wage. I know what you're thinking; you've never heard of that kind of thing happening before. Anyway, we had had enough and decided as a group to present a united front to the hogwon and ask for overtime pay that at least matched our average normal hourly wage or none of us would work the overtime hours. When it came time to give out the overtime hours the boss called us to have a meeting as usual (one of my co-workers wasn't even invited to the meeting). I stuck to my guns but my co-worker folded almost immediately. He told them he'd prefer to make the higher salary but that it depended on the hogwon. Of course they jumped on that and just said it wasn't their policy to pay more and without further discourse my "stalwart" co-worker accepted the overtime hours. I left in disgust and have never even been tempted to try to collaborate with co-workers on bettering my workplace since then. I confronted the guy about it later and called him a scab. I found it so utterly laughable when he got quite angry about that and told me his family had a long tradition of being loyal union workers back in the states. Man, if that's the kind of loyalty people think of that come here, there's just no hope of a successful union movement.

An alternate idea that might have some chance of success is to create a co-op recruitment agency. The agency could approach hogwons with the idea of offering teachers at a discounted recruitment fee if the hogwon accepted a more reasonable contract. Since it would be a co-op, it might be possible to afford it. Plus, membership fees would be nil or quite low compared to the formation of a union. Of course, the majority of teachers in Korea - those on their first (and typically only) year of work - would likely not even have the chance to find out that they could even join such a co-op so it probably would never be very big.

[lifeinkorea]

Let's look at "a" and "the".

When we use "a", then we are talking about one of many.

"There is always a bad apple in the bunch."

When we use "the", then we are calling out a specific item.

"Did you pick the bad apple?"

Now, is "a" union the same as "the" bunch?