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Life Story Written By Park, Min-na
A woman who wants to retire as a factory worker
- Ms. Bok Seon Oh, Inchon WWA member -
Min Na Park,
Edition committee mimber of KWWAU
Bok Seon Ajuoomma has happy and enjoyable work. There are three male workers and two female workers in her small factory. She receives only fifteen thousand won per day but she never does an extra work. It is not because she has two little kids but she believes that she can work for her life time only when she work with joy. She started working in a factory when she was in elementary school. She could stop working in a factory but, she says that she would like to complete her life as a woman factort worker. She has lived her best. I met her and listen to her 34 years' story. She has always lived a busy life, and could not remember exact year or date.
A kid in a hill estate
She was born as the third daughter in a hill village on September 5, 1967. Her father, as the eldest son by the first born son, expected a son. Four years after her birth, her brother was born. When the brother was sick and all his family went to the hospital, she, as a six years old kid, cooked rice for the first time. Half of the rice was burnt and the rest was not cooked. The bitter taste of the burnt rice was a preview of her suffering life.
Hill village are always full of tension by the violence of the demolition corps. She still remembers seeing the sky on getting up in the morning when she was seven years old. The roof was taken away by the demolition corps. She wondered seeing the sky instead of the roof. At that time, there was a violent fight between the demolition corps and residents. Some people even died during the fight. However she does not remember the bad memories. She had lots of friends and her memory of the hill estate is full of joys and happiness though she had to live in a tent after demolition of her house.
"We took my father's small truck to move to a new house provided by the government. We were going into a deep mountain. I was thinking if it's possible to have a house in such a deep valley. Anyway I was very excited in moving to a new house not a tent. Arriving at the place, we found a house only with a frame. It was like a toy."
No electricity, no windows, .. They had to live in a tent again and her father had to use spare time to complete the house. They spent that winter in a tent and there was lots of snow in that winter.
Sacrifice of twenty thousand won scholarship to repay debt
It was impossible for a poor family kid to have a new clothes. The freckles on her face made a distance between her and her friends. She was isolated from her classmates. Her teacher was partial to certain students. For her, poverty and appearance were a serious disaster. Therefore she lost words and just studied. She was the best at study among her brother and sisters.
"My father sold his small truck and we were getting poorer and poorer. I often observed quarrels of my parents due to problems. The school tuition fee was only 650 won at that time. I was quite sure of the same situation in a senior school therefore I gave up going to the senior school. My parents did not mention about my schooling but I remembered their comments. I used to write letters for the old neighbors who could not write. Looking at me writing letters for the neighbors, my parents said that women need to learn until they can write a letter. In September when I was in the 6th grade, I started working in a factory. If I could be a heroin of the TV program, "TV with Wave of Love", I would like to look for my teacher of the 6th grade.
" My teacher was very sorry for my situation. When my teacher knew that I worked in a factory, he went to the factory and had a quarrel with the owner. My teacher protested against the child labor. He made a arrangement for a scholarship of twenty thousand won. The junior high school tuition fee was W24,500. Of course the scholarship was used for repaying the family debt. At that time I hated my parents and determined myself to save money to go to senior school. However, I can understand my parents since I have become a mother. My mother has kept the envelope of the scholarship until now and she always feels sorry for that.
A Gongsooni of a textile factory
After graduating from elementary school, her total factory life started. She took the company bus at 6:50 and arrived at the factory at 8:20. She finally became a textile factory worker. The most joyful thing for her was to go to the night school run by a catholic church. She finished her work at 7:30pm then went to the night school which started at 8pm and ended at 11pm. She always took the last bus back home. She came home at mid night and studied until 2am. She had to do over-night work once per week. On the day of over-night work, she had to go back to the factory after the class in the night school. Due to her hard work, she passed the Qualifying Exam for the junior high school course
"I am not so sure but it could be when I was about seventeen years old. My father was collapsed by paralysis. I gave up taking another Qualifying Exam for the senior high school course. My mother carried goods to sell on the streets but, I still had to act as a family leader since my older sisters all married. A year after, we had to move house. We could not fix the house because of debts. So, we sold out our house and moved to a rented flat. My mom, who never cried before, cried a lot moving house."
I am sure that it was not only her mother that cried. Talking about her mother's crying, her eyes turn red.
Being a dismissed worker due to the YMCA activities
Her factory was bankrupted, and she moved to another textile factory which had a dorm. Seven workers shared one room. It was not very convenient but she could be free from her family. It was also good to live with her colleagues.
"I always visited my family on my pay day. I used to buy cookies, cigarettes, and Soju(Korean whisky) for my father, meat or pork for my mother, and some snacks for my brother. It seems that my family still recall the memory of my visit."
Everybody has a turning point in his or her life. A year after working in a new factory, her friend introduced the YMCA to her. YMCA provided her a turning point.
"It was a kind of play class. They taught me that the monthly pay, I received, should be called as wage. I learned how to account my wage and singcurious songs. It was a lot of fun. I had lots of curiosity to learn new things. It was politically very tense due to the change of the national constitution. I carried circulars with my YMCA friends and it made my factory managers very nervous.(laughing)"
According to her expression, she was dismissed for her activities with YMCA. She laughed to talk about this which could be a suffering memory. In her next factory she had to take a turn for day work and night work. She spent a year very quitely. One day, some of the workers began to work for organizing a trade union. Finally they came to her.
"In a word, organizing a union, I was again organized as an activist. I became a chairman of our dorm and a leader in charge of organizing. I organized climbing club, fishing club, traditional rhythm instrument club, etc. I still had to take care of my family and visit other organizations. I never slept more than three hours. And I came to know about KWWAU."
Inchon WWA members who are more precious than family
I spent three years in a rush then, I was exhausted. She was also very much bothered by her brother who was too much dependent on her. In November, 1990, she just moved to Inchon where her eldest sister lived.
Her contact with the Inchon WWA started like this. At the beginning, her sister admired her as a patriot but her sister could not stand her busy life without any concern for marriage. She had a big fight with her sister and left her sister's house. Since she had no place to stay, she stayed in the Inchon WWA office. 14 staff of the Inchon WWA were her the biggest wall she could rely on. For her WWA is like a parents' house and the staff is more than her family.
"The year of 1991 was full of struggle. I entered a new factory where they had no union. Six months after, the factory was closed by bankruptcy. I was very sad and cried a lot. I felt as if I lost my job in the factory where I worked for more than ten years. I had lots of things to worry about living in Inchon which was very new to me. A while after, WWA gave me the position of Manager of the Culture Dept. I spent another six months in struggle activities."
Her naughty eyes looked bright speaking about her activities. She looks very small and pretty. But I could imagine her militancy.
"It was hard since membership was decreased. We encouraged each other and learned unity. We also learned the process of being a militant. Of course there were conflicts and disagreements in the learning process but, all those experiences became seeds for my life."
They had a over-night sit in in order to protect property. Even though the process of struggle was very hard, they made good achievements that the arrested workers were released and they received 6 months of wages as dismissal allowance. They could not maintain regular meetings but they still meet from time to time. She still feels warm feeling whenever she recalls her colleagues who were with her in the struggle.
Pregnant woman with RH- blood
"I entered a new factory in 1993. There were five male workers and one of them was outstanding(laugh). One day he told me that he had a nightmare. So, I asked him to go for a drink. When we came out from a singing room, it was snowing. You maybe able to guess our feelings(laugh). I had a long walk with him."
They have not had a wedding ceremony. Three years after she worked in the factory, they promised to live together for a million years. However her in-law family to be proposed to postpone their wedding since her husband's elder brothers were not yet married.
"I miscarried several times so that I had a precise medical check. I came to know that I had RH- blood. Doctors told me that my baby would die even though I succeeded to carry them for ten months. But I did not give up. For the first delivery, doctors told me that an operation would be more dangerous. Therefore I took three days to deliver the first child. Doctors said that it was a very rare case(laugh). The baby weighed only 1.9Kg so that he was in an incubator for a month. I guess, the happiest day of my life was the day
when my baby was discharged from hospital. One hundred days after the first delivery, I got pregnant again. I thought God was going to give me two fortunes and decided to have second baby. Ha, Ha, Ha!"
Fortunately the second baby was 3.5Kg and everything carried on normally. The doctor said that he did not want to see her pregnancy again. It was because she got through so hard situation.
Returned to the factory with her husband in the camp of InchonWWA(Aug., 1994)
She started working again since her husband's business met a crisis. Her children were too young to let their mother work. Therefore she did some part time jobs that could be done at home for one and half year. Then she entered into a factory where was a child care center run by the factory. While she worked in the factory, her husband failed in his business and his debt was increased. Her factory was in a distance with her house and there were lots of extra works. The whole atmosphere of her family was a mess. Her kids got sick often and the house was full of mess.
"I have never thought that living life is hard. I just can say that I have had to pass a series of difficult situations. All of sudden, I was struck by a thought of why I have to live like this. I have been responsible for my family whole through my life even though there were lots of things that I wanted to do. I wanted to live freely. Hard working was not a problem for me at all. Only thing was that I wanted to live in peace and happiness. My friends began to worry about me. I was known as a happy woman enjoying work happily. However, I became an exhausted woman."
The story should be a painful memory for her. But she talked the story very calmly. Her husband began to be very tensed by collapse of his wife who was very strong. One day, he gave her a letter. It was the first letter which his husband wrote. It was written in the letter, "Observing your collapsing, I seem to lose everything. Please believe me once more. I love you." The letter was very moving. Then he gave up his ambition towards his business and entered a factory. She was grateful of her husband and his decision. She could feel the strength of his love towards her and their kids. It gave her a new strength. She just quitted her work in the factory and rested for a month. She changed her mind that it's OK even though we had nothing. The importance is to have a relax.
Strengthening hands
It has been only a month since she has worked in a small factory. She is happy because her colleagues are all fine and good. She is the person who gets sick by stopping working. Her dream is to be the longest working woman. She does not expact more since she is happy with her family.
Only task which she has to think about is the role as a member of WWA. As a mother and as a wife, she has had to do lots of duties, and she has not been able to carry on her role as a working woman.
"I believe that because of kids or the father in law, who is living with her family, is all excuse reason. I may not dare to make my position within the working women's movement because I have been away for a long time. It seems that re-beginning is more difficult than new beginning. But, I have a faith that the work of WWA is my work and I will take up my role there in a near future."
When can we see her active commitment in the Inchon WWA? We may need to seek for our role to bring her back to WWA. Because we should go together sharing our strength. |