South Koreas Labor Woes

Abstract

South Korea has been plagued by poor industrial relations since the mid-1980s and the inability of the government to effect a more orderly interaction between management and workers has proved costly for the ambitious nation. This article presents evidence showing that the problem has structural, rather than merely cyclical, roots and it is argued that, the recent decline in labor militancy notwithstanding, an escalation in industrial conflict is inevitable unless the underlying imbalances are addressed systematically.