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| Women Cooks, the Life of the Struggle Turned Scapegoat - Documentary <Cook. Life. Goat> |
Documentary <Cook. Life. Goat> (directed by Lim In Ae, produced by Lanet) was set to be screened at the Ulsan Human Rights Film Festival, which was postponed indefinitely due to the controversy over censorship. The film is about the life of women working as cooks in the Hyundai Motors union restaurant as they struggled from 1988 to 2000 against retrenchment and went up against the management and union to recover their jobs.
The film, commended for effectively portraying the suffering of the sexual minority and the hierarchy and authoritarianism internalized in the labor movement, drives the plot at a breathless pace, going from July 1998, when the women started their protest camp-out, to January 2000, when they concluded their struggle and went back to their workplace as subcontracted workers.
Waving slogans saying "lipstick prints on union flags made of rice scoops," the women joined their fellow union members in the protest camp-out, never dreaming that they would ultimately become the prime scapegoats in the union struggle.
The women had joined in the strike with gusto, beating their ladles against pots and pans. The male union members said that the struggle was merrier thanks to the ladies, and did not hesitate to call them the 'life of the struggle.'
As the struggle continued into August 1988, the women started cooking food for the vanguard protesters. The company had cut off the gas supply, but the women used two small gas barrels to cook three meals a day for some three hundred people. Without being asked, they looked for ways to reduce expenses, scouring markets for thrown out vegetables, which they cleaned thoroughly and cooked into soup. It was tough work with no one to help them out, but the women faithfully stuck to their role, taking joy in finally feeling like true union members.
The ladies, who had opposed the management's move to turn them into subcontracted workers, heard on the news on August 19 after Minister of Labor Lee Ki Ho and government mediators had entered the scene that the 160 cooks were to be laid off.
Trembling with anxiety and nervousness, the women held a meeting with the union president at 7:30 a.m. on August 21. The president said that the union could "either accept the mediator's proposal and end the fight peacefully or refuse mediation and eventually go down under the suppression of riot police." He also promised that "if the women were willing to accept the lay-off, the union will retain management of the restaurant and rehire all of them." The women were then told to arrive at a decision in one and a half hours, at 9 a.m.
Making a decision on a life-and-death matter in such a short time was not easy. Nevertheless, the women decided to put their trust in the union president and accepted the lay-off.
At 6:30 a.m. on August 24, the workers and management agreed on the proposal drawn up by the mediatory team, thus concluding labor-management negotiations. Of the 1,538 workers on the lay-off blacklist, 1,261 went on unpaid leave and 277 were actually dismissed. As for the 144 women who had stayed with the strikers to the end, they were all laid off, down to the last woman.
That night, the rest of the strikers took down their tents, but the women gathered under their tent once again. They could not reconcile the fact that they had turned into subcontracted workers in a restaurant managed by none other than the union president. Furthermore, they could not help wondering if they were truly regarded as union members. They had worked so hard, feeding the men under the blazing sun all summer, and they could not accept that they were the only ones who had been laid off, right down to the last cook.
In the end, the women decided that the entire union would be better off thanks to their sacrifice. Pinning their hopes on the agreement between labor and management to recall the dismissed workers and voluntary early retirees if the economy improved, the women went back to cooking on November 1.
After the lay-offs, business picked up for Hyundai Motors, recording a net profit of 480 billion won in 1999 and reaching the profit goal of 800 billion won in 2000. The women decided to restart their struggle in August 1999, demanding their jobs back.
However, the union, which the women had thought would be on their side, showed a lukewarm attitude. When a clash between the cooks and the security guards resulted in the company claiming damages against the women, they asked for protection from the union.
The union committee, however, decided that "protection could not be guaranteed, because the women were not being threatened by a decision made by the current committee." This happened on December 21. The women put up their tents in front of the union office and started a death fast.
On January 18, 2000, 14 days into the hunger strike, a 'Special committee for the re-employment of union restaurant workers' was formed, and it was decided that the union would protect the cooks. However, the women did not get back their jobs. Today, they are still working as subcontracted workers, in the same workplace, with the same job description.
Director Lim In Ae says, "I can still recall the women's bewildered expressions as they gave up their struggle because of lack of support from other union members who considered fighting against the union a loss of face." Lim added that she wanted to "portray the degradation of workers' survival and dignity using retrenchment as a theme."
Lanet had initially planned to edit the 5-hour long film into a 2-hour-8-minute condensation of the main episodes of the struggle. Currently, the documentary is available for viewing episode by episode on the human rights film festival website.
reported by Choi Lee Boo-ja, bjchoi@womennews.co.kr
| Lee Ok Ji, Co-author of <History of Korean Women's Labor Movement> |
"All the resources have been organized in one book." That is how Lee Ok Ji, who co-authored <History of Korean Womens' Labor Movement> (Hanul Publications) with Kang In Soon, evaluates the significance of the book. An unprecedented documentation of the struggle of women workers in the manufacturing industry, the book was planned by the Korea Women Workers Association United with the aim of putting women's labor movement in the right perspective.
"Women workers led the labor movement until the mid-1980's, and became the foundation of the labor movement today."
However, the women were overshadowed by male workers in conglomerates and heavy industries, and did not get due recognition. Even articles on women labor activists are written in a gender-ambiguous manner, leading the reader to assume that the stories are about men.
The book deals with the period from the 1920's to mid-1990's. Lee authored volume 1 spanning the history of the movement up to 1986, and then passed the baton to Kang for volume 2.
"Control of labor during Japanese colonial rule was similar to the Yushin era (period of constitutional and social reform in 1972~1981 initiated by Korea's infamous fourth Republic). This led to numerous struggles by women workers in the rubber and textile industries. The corporate practice of hiring gangsters to break up strikes existed back then, and during US military rule, various bad labor laws were already in existence."
The Korean women's labor movement started with the Japanese imperialists' move to turn Korea into an industrial colony. However, the Korean war and consequent reduction of factory workers in the 1950s and 60s led to a lapse in the movement.
And then at the end of the 60s, the movement became active again, "as if it had returned to the Japanese colonial era." In the 1960s, light industries still dominated the Korean economy, allowing women workers to outnumber the men and become the leaders of the workers' struggle.
"It is difficult to understand where they found the passion and spirit of sacrifice, but the women persevered, wanting to be the 'masters of their lives.' Working conditions were deplorable, with some places where overtime hours were even longer than the 8 regular working hours. The women harbored a deep-seated sense of discontent over the fact that they were factory workers. According to a survey in 1978, this dissatisfaction heightened about 5 years into the job. As opposed to the men, whose salaries kept climbing, the women were pressured to resign, with deteriorating eyesight and aching limbs thanks to the killing hours of harsh labor."
Explains Lee, "Even though they didn't use expressions such as menstrual leave or abolishment of gender discrimination, women workers in several workplaces began to make their demands known."
"Before, women workers couldn't do anything when male officers in the management touched them, but after the workers of Bando Trading formed a union, the women stopped sexual harrassment on the job. And they got the management to address the union president as President Han instead of just 'Miss Han.' At Samsung Pharmaceuticals, the women demanded that the company educate its management staff so that they would not use derogatory forms of speech to the production workers. By today's standards, the women's demands may not seem to be much, but back then, it was the norm for men to 'speak down on' even college graduate women."
After the mid-80s, the women-led labor movement appears to decline. However, Kang's volume 2 proves that the women workers kept up a steady struggle.
In order to portray as accurately as possible the lives of each woman activist, Lee documented in great detail the words and actions of the management and well as the foul language used by the police.
Lee wrote her doctorate thesis in 1990, entitled 'Labor Control and the Labor Movement in the Korean textile industry.' Her first contact with the Korea Women Workers Association United was in 1994. During her college years, Lee always thought that 'women could succeed if they tried hard enough,' and was not particularly interested in the women labor movement. But she witnessed the Dongbang Textiles incident and eventually got involved, and her experiences left a deep impression on her.
The planning of <History of Korean Womens' Labor Movement> began in 1997 and took 4~5 years to write. It was a laborious process, particularly because of the limit to available resources. Documentation of historical incidents often fail to specify whether women played a central role. The authors had to make deductions based on names that appear, work on hearsay, and compare various materials in searching for notable incidents. Furthermore, it was often difficult to track down the women who had been active before the 1980s.
"I hope that the book will draw out the numerous women who had been active in the labor movement but whose whereabouts is a mystery today. So hopefully the next edition will contain more in-depth stories."
Lee revealed that "there are women with vast experience in the labor movement of the 60s and 70s who have turned full-time housewives because no one has asked for their services." Stresses Lee, "We should enable these women to tap into their knowledge."
reported by Song Ahn Un-a sea@womennews.co.kr
| Solidarity of Korean Women Opposing War - "WAW" |
WAW (Women Against War), the organization gathering voices of Korean women opposed to war, has expanded its organization and gotten its campaign in full swing.
Besides organizing women to send out the anti-war message from the viewpoint of women and the socially marginalized in Korea, the launching of WAW is significant in the sense that it has proven the potential of a 'new system for feminist solidarity' by rallying feminist groups, websites, media and individuals around the same cause.
Unlike the method of alliance adopted by mainstream civic groups, WAW members put groups and individuals on an equal footing, letting them participate in ways each sees fit. Within one week of opening the internet cafe http://www.freechal.com/kwaw, more than 100 individuals have signed up for membership, organizing themselves into the WAW website team, overseas material translators' team, media monitoring and critique team, university alliance team, international relations team and so on.
At noon on October 10 in Gwanghwamun, the heart of downtown Seoul, WAW plans to hold the 'Anti-War Crossing Demonstration 1010,' expressing the voices of Korean women and the social weak against war.
WAW will also concentrate on international exchanges with overseas women-for-peace groups and anti-war websites.
reported by Cho Lee Yeu-wool cognate@womennews.co.kr
| Women Musicians' Treat: 'Energy Shower' |
The voices of Han Young Ae, Lee Eun Mi, Lee Sang Eun and Park Hye Kyung will be blending with the Kang Eun Mi-led Imagine 21's Korean traditional musical instruments and with Kwak Jeong's harp to create fervent energy on stage.
The occasion has been named the Gala Concert 2001 'Four Strings and Four Voices,' scheduled for October 13.
The concert, created by the Korea Women's Fund, will be a crossover performance combining the talents of four popular singers, traditional musicians and a classic musician. The concert is being held to raise funds for the 'Hope to our Daughters' campaign.
The performers, each with a unique music world of her own, will be putting together one of the most beautiful and entertaining repertoires that can be created by the women of this country. There will also be a surprise event to announce the male singer (currently being voted through the Internet) most compatible with Korea's best female musicians.
Han Young Ae is a singer that needs no introduction. A theater major, she acted in plays such as <A Woman named Solitude> and <First Marriage>, and worked with the Shinchon Blues troupe. 1999 saw her fifth music album, entitled <Flying.>
Lee Eun Mi is famous for appearing in concerts regardless of fees as long as they are for a good cause. She recently criticized the system governing Korea's popular music culture. An admirer of black jazzician Sarah Burn, Lee is a power-packed musician who has more than 170 live concerts under her belt.
Lee Sang Eun, who is gradually discovering her identity as a feminist artist, will also be part of the gala concert. She will be making a long-overdue personal appearance, after making a name for herself as a skilled musician by creating the sound track of the movie <Bongja.>
Another unique feature of this concert is the performance by Kang Eun Il, who constantly tries to create her own style of music rather than remaining an ordinary Haegeum player. (Haegeum: Korean traditional instrument resembling a fiddle) Kang is a flexible traditional musician who has tried to blend Korean traditional music with popular and even western music. During the concert, Imagine 21, led by Kang, will treat the audience to the refreshing harmony of traditional instruments.
New generation singer Park Hye Kyung and harpist Kwak Jeong complete the ensemble of all-women artists who will be putting on a genuine variety show. The Korea Women's Funds wants the concert to be a way for donations to become a more comfortable and natural act. All proceeds will go to financing projects to help marginalized women.
reported by Ji Eun-ju ippen@womennews.co.kr
Articles condensed by
Lee- In-hwa, translated by Cho Eung-joo.
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