South Korea's triumphant development has catapulted the country's
economy to the eleventh largest in the world. Large family-owned
conglomerates, or chaebŏls, such as Samsung, Hyundai, and LG, have
become globally preeminent manufacturing brands. Yet Korea's highly
disciplined, technologically competent skilled workers who built these
brands have become known only for their successful labor-union
militancy, which in recent decades has been criticized as collective
"selfishness" that has allowed them to prosper at the expense of other
workers.
Hyung-A Kim tells the story of Korea's first generation of skilled
workers in the heavy and chemical industries sector, following their
dramatic transition from 1970s-era "industrial warriors" to labor-union
militant "Goliat Warriors," and ultimately to a "labor aristocracy" with
guaranteed job security, superior wages, and even job inheritance for
their children. By contrast, millions of Korea's non-regular employees,
especially young people, struggle in precarious and insecure employment.
This richly documented account demonstrates that industrial workers'
most enduring goal has been their own economic advancement, not a wider
socialist revolution, and shows how these individuals' paths embody the
consequences of rapid development.