The major cases were caused by worries of being dismissed. The unjust and illegal dismissals were increased in many diverse forms. Regarding employment and other counseling, many clients wanted jobs and complained about difficulties in the workplace.

The Cases according to different forms

1. Worries about employment (unpaid wages/irregular jobs/dismissal)

   The name of the company has changed. Can we receive unpaid wages ?
   The company was closed from December 28, 997 and shutdown on January 5, 1998. It opened a new company nearby place under a new title with the same president, but whom also had a new name.
   The new company selected eighty workers among the one hundred thirty workers from the former company. Presently, the workers have not received their unpaid wages. Can we get them?
   - a manufacture factory, Masan -

   If a company is not registered, can the workers receive the unpaid wages ?
   In a small factory with 7 - 8 workers. Two months ago, the president ran away saying he had no money. In turn, one of the male workers took over the presidency and pleaded with the workers to work hard. 2 - 3 women workers worked hard for two months so that the company could make profits.

   Suddenly the man said that he had no money to pay their wages. He didnt care about the threat of legal action since the company was not registered. Is it possible to receive wages?
   - a manufacture factory, Pusan -

   The company demands the pregnant married expeditionary worker to resign
   They were sent to university and were supposed to receive seventy nine won per month but they were paid only fifty tow won per month. The university demanded to change one of the married worker. Is there any way to receive unpaid wages and maintaining my work position?
   - a expeditionary worker, Seoul -

   Sexual harassment and even dismissal
   For over a year I worked with 5 other part time employees in a hospital. The Director of the hospital had sexually harassed 2 female workers.
   My female coworkers and I met with the director, expecting an apology, but the director insisted that he had no reason to apologize and proposed that he would repeat his actions. He even sent to the extreme of telling us that we should rethink whether we really deserved an apology.

   We were so shamed of his dental acting that we just went home. The next morning, the secretary at the hospital informed us that the three workers, who met with the director of the hospital, were being dismissed with severance pay of 2 months salaries and full bonuses. I dont want to accept this situation and would prefer to go back to work. What should I do?
   - a hospital worker, Inchon -

   Sudden dismissal without any dismissal allowance
   I worked for 6 years with 20 other workers in a pipe manufacturing factory. One day, the factory announced a major dismissal which included me. The company did not plan to pay for the dismissal allowance and just wanted us to resign. We have worked hard for the company and now they want to dismiss us without paying for the proper allowances. We are struggling against this dismissal. What can we do now?
   - a manufacturing factory, Pusan -

   Ordered to work in other places
   Our company had taken all machines and equipment to new sites and had ordered the workers to move to the new location without question.
   The company continued to recruit new workers. We demanded that the workplace not be changed. We were then moved to the cleaning section with the excuse that were too expense to keep on in the other section. Eventually we received dismissals.
   - a manufacturing factory, Masan -

   Re-employment and then final dismissal
   She is an unmarried woman worker in her 20s. She worked as a treasurer in a machine import company for more than a year. The company demanded a resignation letter from every worker. Then, the company re-recruit the workers after dismissing seven workers( three of them were women). At present the company stopped publishing its newsletter and the workers in the department of trade, secretary, and management to sales department.

   The company informed us that there would be two or three more dismissal... After one dismissal, we wrote petition letters to the Ministry of Labor. What should we do?
   - office workers, Daegu -

2. The cases of sexual discrimination(employment/promotion/resignation)

   A president of a private junior high school violated the private life of a teacher
   I am a teacher at a private middle school. The president of the school does not allow the women teachers to wear pants. The women teachers wrote a petition letter signed by all of the women teachers, and the president became very angry and still did not allow us to wear pants.

   When some women teachers wore pants purposely, the president let other men teachers criticize the women teachers with pants. Now even the students are becoming involved in matter. The president often says, If you keep on wearing pants, I wont give you classes. I will let you work even during vacations.
   - a married woman teacher, Seoul -

   A pregnant woman is pressured to resign from her job
   I am a married woman who has worked in financial company for 8 years and have been pregnant for 8 months. Recently my senior clerk is saying that, We are disable because of her whenever she is out. This indirect pressure makes me worry about my future. If the company demands for my resignation, what should I do ?
   - an office woman, Daegu -

   Only male workers get seats for vocational training and female workers are ordered to leave their post and wait for further action
   I am an office woman in XX car sales branch office in Seoul. I was ordered to leave my post and wait for further action with other male colleagues. I received a notice that I would be moved to the Personnel Department, and was invited for a training course for my new job.

   But I was refused the right to participate in the training course when I went to the training center. The company allowed only male workers to participate in the training course, and all the female workers were again ordered to wait for further action for three more months.
   - an office woman, Inchon -

   Women workers are pressures to take irregular work post or to resign
   I am a regular employee in a local newsletter agency. The company called fifteen women employees and ordered them to choose irregular work positions or to resign with the excuse that the company had too many employees. How can we receive our unemployment benefits after we are forced to resign?
   - an office worker, Masan -

3. Sexual harassment within workplaces

   The male worker working in the same building often harasses female workers
   A woman works in a building as a cleaner. They work in teams of two workers. As they are cleaning the floor, two guards come close to their backs touch their breasts and run away. One of the female workers who dared to shout at them was dismissed. It seems some of the male workers had reported to a false story.
   - a cleaner, Seoul -

   A president of a company sexually harasses female clerks
   A woman worked in the office for three months. She works with a president, vice president, a manager, and six married woman clerks. The president has a separate office. When a woman clerk goes to the president for his signature, he tries to hold her hand, or puts his hand on her shoulders, and to says obscene thing. One woman who was dismissed experienced this exact harassment. She does not mind quitting her to disgrace him.
   - an office clerk, Pusan -

Only she has been affected by young and carefree coworkers she has been surrounded by. She identifies herself with their ages, and has never thought of marriage deeply. Each time the interviewer asked her marriage plan, she blushed. Ms. Yon Sook Kim, a shy lady, told us her life story.

She was the first born among three boys and two girls in Jinchon, Choong Buk. She had to live in her grand parents house until she became seven years old.

“My father was a petty officer and my family had to move very often. My brothers and sisters were too young to live without their parents so my parents left only me with my grand parents. I was only allowed to live with my family after I was enrolled in elementary school. Even still she had to change elementary school three times.”

She was a quiet and introverted girl. Since she had to often change schools often it was difficult for her to adjust to new atmospheres.

She remained introverted until high school. Many people said that she looked very calm and obedient and was very passive. She hated this description of herself.

'Dance and traditional music' opened her heart

Through it she learned to be introspective, reflecting upon all her knowledge and understandings about the world and society. When she was a sophomore, dropped out of school with friends who were on the wanted list. She hide for a long time, and her agony was deepened. There was no reason to return to university.

“I needed to decide if I kept going in the movement. If yes, then what way should I choose? I could not sleep for many nights. One day I met a junior militant and she reproved me a lot about my militancy. I cried all night after meeting her.”

She left home leaving a letter and went to Pusan where her friend was involved in workers movement. There she started a new life and got a job in a shoe factory.

Then, she moved to the Tokyo Silicon which was located in Masan Free Export Plants in 1988 and worked there until she was dismissed from the factory in 1996. She was a good worker who dedicated herself to organize a democratic workers union.

Her factory produced the parts for musical equipment and had about 1400 workers. The factory had various sections and every section was located independently so that it was hard to get informations about other section and even more difficult to meet the workers in other sections. A year after she started working in Tokyo Silicon, her friend came to Masan and got a job in the same factory, but she could not adjust to her work and returned back to Seoul.

Being alon again scared her and made her feel lonely, as she had to get through every problem by herself. But in the end her loneliness made her strong and helped her stand firmly in her situation.

Once she decided to do something, she never looked back, she paid full attention and put all her into whatever activities she choose. In Masan, people mix a strange leaf called Banga used for buchim, a Korean pie, and it was too spicy to eat.

“The first time I tried it, it was hard to tolerate. Therefore I bought a lot of Banga and cooked buchim with Banga every day in order to adjust to that strange smell and taste. Now I cannot take the buchim without Banga. Ha Ha Ha!”

Workers Union Activities with militancy

She paid lots of visits to the labor class which was run by the Masan Catholic Womens Center, the learning class of YMCA, and other various labor classes run by local labor organizations.

She met workers from other sections and formed a small meeting group named the Promotion Committee for Democratization of Workers Union.
1990 was the happiest and busiest year of her life. She was elected as a representative of her section in which there were about 50 workers.
She was so grateful to all those who elected her. Ah! I have faith that they all want change to be made. With much our faith, we moved quickly and effectively.

“We rallied against extra work, initiated group meetings, organized meetings for group leaders, etc. We worked very hard. Subsequently my section was united, served as a good model of union work, but at the same time was frowned upon the company.”

The company relocated her close fellow members in order to isolate her. After two years, another election was held and the number of workers decreased from seventy to forty.
In the election she lost to a young worker, who was backed by the company, won the representative seat. It was an indispensable result but it was still very painful to her. She reflected on the matter.

Have I only cared about my people ? Have I neglected the others? Its all right for others to have their own opinions. I should reveal weakness to my colleagues....

Even though she was not elected as a representative, she was indeed elected as an executive committee member and could participate in the leaders meeting. It provided her to have good experiences for her field work.

The union leaders who were not involved in the Promotion Committee for Democratization of Workers Union(PCDWU), but she studied be an union leader? and cooperated with the other leaders. It helped her learn more about the factory's internal atmosphere. She also organized a traditional rhythm instrument group. Two years later, she was re-elected as a representative and favored with 97% the vote.

’ She earned more power in the union and consolidated her leadership. The PCDWU published a newsletter, 'Working People' which was stopped by the company after three volumes. The committee re-published another newsletter with the title 'One Step More'. In 1994, more workers were married and an increasing number of workers left the company.

The newsletter helped the people of knowing new information related to the workers' life. The Traditional Rhythm instrument group and the survey group on historic remains, formed in 1995, were in favor of merging. An election for the Union chairperson on July, 1996. She felt she should run for the election.

"The chances were slim because a number of activists left the field. It was hard to distribute our newsletters to the workers in a dormitory. Therefore I entered the dorm and lived there in the winter of 1995. She had to go to a hospital for more than three months due to pains in her waist. She had to make a difficult decision concerning the election.”

Even though her health was poor, she still had to run for the election because the activities of PCDWU were repressed and people were not well united. She wanted to take the chance to motivate the people and inspire activities through the election.

She also wanted to reflect on her past activities through the election. There were four candidates in the election and she lost in the election with the least votes. It was, in fact, expected.
Her base was not strong enough or she had a very short time for her election campaign. Even though it was expected, the result frustrated her so much. She was happy though that she could develop good relations with other union members.

A month after the election, she was caught by the police on the way home.

A new start with a new readiness

However, at the same time, I was comforted with the fact that I could have my real name again after living under an alias for so long time. I had to search for a new start. What should I do and how should I do it ? I asked myself. I was even afraid making a wrong start.”

There were several offers for future activities, but she chose to work for the Women Workers which, she thought, was quite related to the activities of PCDWU. As a year past, she had not clear plans of work in her own for the women workers movement.

Works in the organization, she found, were quite different from works in the field. She therefore need more time to reflect. She needed more time to study the women workers movement.

She had been very busy when she was a worker, and now she had more time to think about herself. When I asked her whether she planned to marry, her response was not so positive. Why do what you might regret. was her resolution to be. She looked much more innocent than her age.

We hope that in the ends she is saying,I have done it, and its great..

However, during the depression, the role of women was suddenly limited to the home and women were forced to change their workplace to the home.
It is clearly against the law on the right of labor. Although a married woman may be forced to resign from her job, this does not mean her husbands job is guaranteed. This idea does not help male workers but gives authority to employers to dismiss women workers any time they want.

It is possible to think that the dismissal of colleagues is a better guarantee for my job.
Here we have the story of a struggle made by women workers to protect their fellow union members from being dismissed.

Han Kuk Machine Co. workers union - Hyon Chul Choo, a chairman of the union - met the discriminative dismissal of women workers under the mood of IMF and dismissal arrangement.
There were, of course, the men workers who thought that it was better to dismiss women workers rather than dismissing men workers who were supposed to be main financial suppliers. However, it was a big problem for the union. Be-cause 9 union members were brought to the list to be dismissed. In this factory, there are 170 workers all together and 50 of them joined the union.

There had not been a single attempt to organize a group to support women workers and no problems arose due to the discrimination between men and women workers.

On December 27, 1997, the company suddenly made an announcement, The nine women workers out of fourteen workers in the assembly section would be dismissed by December 31st. The union acted quickly. On the following day, the union made a relief petition to the Pusan Labor Committee in the name of unjust dismissal and launched an over-night demonstration.

The chairman of the union persuaded union members, and claimed, The dismissal, which was applied to the women workers first, will soon affect all the workers. If we cannot stand together firmly on this crisis, the wind of dismissal will rush throughout the company. In light of solidarity, most of the workers,

women and men both, participated in the demonstration. The union provided a month program for the demonstration and planned solidarity activities conjunction with other women organizations. The union continued to deal with the company.

The union pointed out the fact that the company had a very sufficient budget for travel expenses because the company was an export-oriented one. The union proposed to decrease the budget for the business travel in order to rescue the dismissed women workers.

The company recorded twenty six won of whole sale per year and the union had full information about the management of the company so that the negotiation was possibly fulfilled.
Furthermore even the non union members lent their supports. Every section of the company tried to persuade the company to choose ways that would not single at some workers while excusing others. On January 3, 1998, the company finally concluded to keep on all workers.

Efficient efforts, close supervision of the companys management and consolidating the unity of the union members, is what of the union helped defend their colleagues. It also taught a good lesson to the owners of enterprises and society of the attitudes towards the women workers.

We agree with the decision of Han Kuk Machine Co., that the survival of workers and employer both, should be a good model to our society. Dismissing workers because of financial crisis is against the principal, that employers once believed in, of thinking of workers as family members.

There are so many employers who dismissed their workers without looking for other avenues, even before the dismissal arrangement was legalized. We should supervise those unjust employers who are taking advantage of this crisis by firing their workers without rational reasons and there should be enforced regulations to punish them.

The Kyong Do Co. was a sewing company that produced mens suits and subcontracted with Elcanto and Jindo both big and stable companies. Kyong Do has its own brand and is quite a stabilized company. After the collapse of the company, over 10 women workers lost their jobs without receiving retiring allowances or even salaries.

Ms. Myong Lim Ko, 34 years old, worked for Kyong Do for three years, and presently works as a deputy secretary for southern region of the Seoul Garment Manufacturing Workers Union, fought for the countermeasures of the companys dishonoring.

“We accomplished the target productions in 1996 and believe that the year of 1996 made a black record.
However we felt uneasy from the beginning of 1997 and our salaries and bonuses were delayed to be paid from May. Finally the salaries were delayed for two and half months. We all were already in a difficult situation but, we tried to keep our hopes up that we would eventually receive our delayed salaries.”

And so they attempted to get through the crisis. On December 1, about 30 workers including Ms. Ko gathered to organize a countermeasure committee and were suddenly informed of the companys dishonoring. It was a shock. Because only president of the company went for clearing bills in the day before their gathering.

“The president ran away and the managers did not turn up. We went to the house of the president but all his family already run away. From that day on, we took turns guarding the company. We all were in a very difficult situation especially married women who worried deeply about the tuition fees for their children.”

Because the president had run away, the workers attempted to make money by selling the machines and whatever could be sold. For that the workers formed the obligees unit on December 2. Over 60 workers have joined the Chong Gye Garments workers union and the union work together with the workers.

“At first the president refused to give us power of attorney, so we wrote a petition letter to the Ministry of Labor. In the end the president asked us to withdraw the petition letter and gave us attorney.
We sold the machines, cloths, and clothes and made 130 million wons.”

The money however did not help the situation. The total amount of the unpaid wages for 160 workers was 690 million wons, not including retiring allowances. Ms. Go explained that her company could form an obligees committee but, in many other companies in this plants they could not form the committee.

“It is very common to dismiss workers when a difficult situation arises. In many cases, the company wants to run the annual salary system with lower wages, no bonus`, and no retiring allowances, but many times companies are forced to shutdown.

After the IMF, a number of companies have either closed or collapsed. What is puzzling is, how such stable companies could close so quickly.”

The media has focused mainly on the dismissal arrangement for white color and professional sectors. A long time ago, there was news that there were no workers for the 3D industries. However, the situation in the industrial sector is now very serious.

“The sewing industry, by nature, is weaker than other industries. If a big enterprise collapses, the related small industries and subcontract industries will subsequently collapse, too.

We, the factory workers feel that we have no voice and dont even get the chance to worry. We are just dismissed at once when the company is closed. Furthermore, there are many factories that are not registered, and the workers in those factories can not be benefited by the employment insurance or peoples pension system. Some of them even have no medical insurance benefits. It is fortunate that my company has the employment insurance. ”

In January alone, more than 3,000 factories were closed which is a significant number. It is seldom that factories are able to recruit new workers, due to the present situation, and most of the factories cannot pay wages in time.

Putting it briefly, there has been no solution and our lives have become shaky and unstable.
Each day the government and media mention the unemployment rate, but the numbers we hear usually have nothing to do with the workers. However the estimation of the number is nothing to do with workers. For us, the unemployment problem is the most important and relevant issue.

“The mass talks about shared sufferings. But it seems that it is the media itself which cause most of the problems for workers, it is our opinion that the political sector is the place where the dismissal arrangement is most needed.”

After the interview, Ms. Myong Lim Ko added the above opinions with a firm voice.

The Line has worked not only on counseling activities but also on activities such as holding conferences and education programmes. Below is a summary of typical counseling cases published in the book.

And 32 cases (14.6 percent) were about sexual violence in the workplace, 30 cases (13.7 percent) about maternity-related malpractices, 19 cases (8.7 percent) about sexual discrimination in the employment, and 14 cases (6.4 percent) about occupational disease.

Married women workers comprised about 60 percent of those cases. And 79 percent of the women who reported their cases to the Line were working in the non-unionized workplaces, which shows a 6.5 percent point increase compared to 72.5 percent the year before.

Irregular workers such as temporary and contract workers comprised the majority who reported grievances regarding delay in wage payment. This was clearly a delay intentionally practiced by their employers.

Most of the sexual violence cases are about sexual harassment and verbal abuses which are not legally recognized as sexually violent practices under the current law. And employers tend to encourage the victims to resign from their job thus adding to the mental distress of the victim.

Maternity-related cases were mainly about violation of menstruation leave clauses, and also about lack of protection for pregnant workers.

1. Unstable Employment (Delay in Wage Payment, Dismissal)
   • No bonus given to an irregular employee
     I am working at the kitchen of a company. When I got hired by this company about a year ago, the manager told me his company did not pay bonuses to workers. But, I recently found out that every employee who has been working in the company for more than one year receives a bonus equivalent to one month' pay.

     So, I asked the manager about it, and he said that I am not eligible for a bonus, no matter how long I work here, because I am not a regular worker. He stated that he would raise my pay a little bit instead. I am doing the same work as others in the kitchen of this company do. Why am I not eligible for a bonus? Is there any way I can get it? (Inchon)

   • Fired without retirement pay and severance allowance
     I have been working in a trading company with 2 representatives of the company - I am the only employee. My employer told me the other day that I no was longer needed to come to work because he would close the office in five days. I got very upset mainly because I received the notice only five days before the office closing. However I thought I would get payed at least the retirement pay and severance allowance. Now the employer says he cannot pay me them. What can I do? (Seoul)

   • Unjust reassignment to another position
     I am one of the five employees who had production workers in their current place of employment but who were recently were assigned into 'reserve' positions. I think the company has done this to us because we are active members of the union.(Masan)

2. Sexual Discrimination in (Employment, Assignment of Personnel, Early Retirement)
   • Employment of women on a basis of their physical features
     I am a sales person working in a department store. When hiring women sales workers, the department regards women's facial looks and bodily features as the primary criteria in selecting workers.

     When an individual shop recruits sales women, the managers of the department store interview those women face to face and do not allow the shop owner to hire the women who the managers think are not 'attractive enough.' Is there any way for us to discourage the managers from carrying out the terrible practices? (Seoul)

   • Women are laid off first:
     I have been working as an accountant in a private high school for 19 years. The school managers are trying to lay off six married women at the moment. No male workers are threatened. I cannot stand this injustice. I have been working for 19 years! Can your organization help me with this? (Pusan)

   • Woman forced to resign in order to have her maternity leave:
     I have been working in a aluminum production company for 12 years. I got married in 1993, and gave birth to my first child early last year. But I could not take the maternity leave at that time because I knew that no women workers ever took the leave in this company. My supervisor still indirectly press me to resign my job, for example, praising a woman employee who voluntarily quit her job before she gave birth. (Pusan)

3. Sexual Violence
   • Offender gets better rewards
     The foreman in my workplace is notorious for his sexually harassing practices towards women, such as speaking dirty jokes, touching women workers' hips, and so on. Although he once was called to the disciplinary committee and was suspended for two months, now he has returned and is given much better working conditions than before.

     He is even trying to blame and alienate the victims of his sexual abuses from the major group of workers. The victims have made a legal suit against him, but the managers in now doing their best to lead these women to withdraw the suit. (Seoul)

   • Victim, not the offender, forced to resign
     I have been sexually harassed by my supervisor for long. One day, he and I had a very severe argument. The senior supervisor of our department came to know the situation I was going through, and told me that I had better take a rest for a little while during which he would manage the situation so that I could come back to work with no problem.

     I believed what he said and turned in a letter of resignation as he told me to as a 'strategy.' But, my resignation was formally accepted by the management right after, while the offender is still working in the company without any punishment. (Inchon)

4. Maternity Protection and Childcare
   • Shortening of the period of maternity leave
     I am a teacher in a private high school. The school management allows women teachers only one-month maternity leave. Even the Ministry of Education says it is not illegal because the regulations state that maternity leave can be given 'up to 60 days'. As far as I know, 60 days of maternity leave is the generally practiced one in most companies and institutions. Is this interpretation of the 'up to 60 day' clause right? (Seoul)

   • Deducting 10 days of menstruation leave from the maternity leave
     I am a clerical worker. When I was pregnant, I kept taking the menstruation leave once a month. But later, when I was taking maternity leave for giving birth, the management allowed only 50 days of leave rather than 60 days which is the usual practice in our company.

     They said they had to subtract 10 days from the 60 because I already took the 10. I wonder if they are right. If so, is there no legal protection system for pregnant women workers? (Seoul)

In order to participate in the program, we - (Rhie Cholsoon president of KWWAU, Park hyunmi, Choi Myung hee and I) - met at Kimpo International Airport on August 31 at 10:00a.m. with nervous hearts. Because after checking everything we were in the process of going through passport control when an unexpected incident occurred.

To enter Indonesia, the expire date on the passport should be a minimum of six months away, however, Chol-soon (Maria)'s expired date was short by ten days. We couldn't do anything there at the airport that morning. So one of our party could not go abroad, but what was more, Maria was to be our interpreter at the program.

Also, it wasn't easy to cancel or postpone the program which was set for some months in constant dialogue with the Indonesian representatives. Furthermore it could lead to a breakdown in international trust. The resolution Maria would go to Indonesia as soon as she took care of these problems following us three who would leave first.

Nervousness about being in a foreign land soon disappeared:

After we came though emigration, we saw a guy holding up a picket with big letters "KWWAU" at the airport. We were very glad to see him. On our way to hotel, by car with our little English speaking abilities, we just made small talk introducing ourselves.

We felt our uneasiness slowly disappearing as we saw the exotic view through the window.

Although it was autumn, it was like the early summer in Korean climate, we spent our first night in Indonesia a little warm. The next morning, we visited the labor movement organization called YBP and heard about the labor situation. in the first free trade zone in Jakarta..

With Illegal layoffs, th labor movement under the forceful oppression of the police and the army, Jakarta's laborers were in a poor situation working 12 hours a day with a pay as low as 5750 Rp (1$=2800Rp).

Equal Wages between Women and Men but the Standard is Low:

▶ Together with activists at liberal export zone, Jakarta, Indonesia

Nowadays, large conglomerates like Hyundai, Samsung, Kia, Daewoo and medium sized enterprises are doing business in Indonesia involved in footwear, garments, electronics, pharmaceuticals, plastics etc.

In the afternoon, we visited free trade zone factories and in the evening, we were to meet free trade zone women workers and talk about the women workers' situation and union works.

However due to the language barriers we could not fully express our opinions so that we just had to be satisfied with learning a bit of each other's languages. After getting a little closer by laughing and learning a little our respective languages, the barriers gradually broke down and we became all relaxed.

On the second day, we gladly joined up with Maria who just arrived. We met with the so called "Women Laborers' Forum" women workers we had met the previous day at the Free Export Zone. This forum was found in 1996 to solve problems they were facing - to have the male trade union leaders recognize women's issues as well as to overcome the low level of participation of women workers in the union.

The 7 participants of this forum were workers laid off from the sewing, clothing factories and workers from Japanese and Korean companies. The seven had 1 or 2 small groups each at their working places consisting 8-10 workers each and what they did was to prepare for the struggle in the most appropriate way for their particular workplace.

Women workers in Indonesia consists of 90% of All Indonesian workers and at the moment, they were fighting for 3 demands.

The Implementation of the monthly Menstruation leave:

In one company's case, they would not allow people to use their monthly leave owing to the managing problem; if people did use their monthly leave, that day is excluded from the number of working days with the result that the monthly leave is just in name only.

The second demand is the guarantee of the three months off before and after giving birth. The legal maternity leave is three months, however it is not possible to take leave before birth so that people only use half of their maternity leave -(one moth and fifteen days) - after birth.

Also, women workers who have worked more than two years of continuous service were only allowed to use their maternity leave with the result that once again the maternity leave regulation was just there in mere name only.

The third issue is the demand for the establishment of the long service allowance.
In Indonesia, whether it's a year or ten years, length of service isn't recognized so that all people get the same wages. That's why people are demanding of long service allowance.

Counselling of women in the sex industry:

The conspicuous thing while visiting these groups was that the half of the activists were male. Seeing this, I was happy to see that there were a lot of men who were aware and were working together with alienated women as the way to integral human liberation.

We also had a chance to look around the Rungkut free trade zone and an area crowded with home industries. Development in Rungkut began in 1973 and was formally designated as a free trade zone in 1988.

Like Korea, it was impossible to go into the factory and look around the workplace so that we just had to be satisfied with just seeing from afar. At Rungkut free trade zone, there are 300 business areas and 300,000 workers.

Foods, drinks, ramyun, ketchup, and ice cream making factories were the most common followed by the metal and machinery factories. There were five Korean companies including Kungdong industries.

On September 5, we took a trip by train to have a workshop with Indonesian activists and group leaders for three days. The reason we went to the place taking a five hour train journey was because in Indonesia, in order to have a meeting consisting more than 10 people, a prior report has to made to government authorities.

We were to meet at Yogyakarta, the place where the Suravaya area activists and Jakarta area activists could come together with no problems . At this workshop, a total of 13 people got together and it was held at the studio of an artist.

The time was spent introducing ourselves, each country's working environment and situation as well as having exchanges about the labor movement.

Korean Company's Inhumane Procedures Disclosed

One female worker talked about the inhumane behavior towards the Indonesian of a Korean manager at a Korean company: As the work shift finished he would scatter the employee's attendance cards on the ground without any reasons and he would shout and call names.

At the workers looking for their cards on the ground, This story is one example of misbehavior by multi-national corporations. Listening to this story, we felt empathy with the workers and the anger growing inside us at the Korean companies' wrong method in controlling the workers.

Since August 1997, the new Labor Law allows only individual demands deeming illegal collective actions in the company. Under this restriction of collective action, Indonesian workers actively work in the small groups to overcome the poor working conditions.

When sun set, the temperature declined sharply and it was a bit chilly like Korea in late fall. We had not prepared any winter clothes so that we spent our nights feeling a little chilly and very aware of the lizards on the wall........

Establishment of Solidarity between Korean and Indonesian Female Workers:

Indonesian activists wanted Korean news through fax, e-mail, or letter and visits by Korean childcare, labor union, and labour movement groups. They particularly wanted the support from Korean labor movement groups on the issue of Korean companies' misbehavior. Also, wanted this type of workshop to be held on a regular basis held.

We got a chance to spend three days at Bali thanks to the concern of the Indonesian side about our busy lives in Korea and after the third day, we were on a plane back to Korea.

The passionate resistance by the Indonesian female workers' to the yellow unions in the face of oppression by the government and the military was a fresh inspiration to us. This inspiration and energy

I believe will be a source strength to our movements. Finally I want to thank the KWWAU for arranging this profitable and beneficial program.

Small and medium Japanese companies which had been on the verge of bankruptcy in labor intensive industry in Japan, moved into Korea in 1970 in order to take advantage of financial benefits, tax holidays, easy control of labor and low wage women workers.

In this process of this withdrawal, many of Korean women workers lost their jobs abruptly. The companies also maneuvered to destroy labor unions using the "Kusadae" (goon squad). Hankuk Sanyun Union has become a scapegoat under the oppression by a foreign invested firm.

(1) Bargaining on the one hand but naked oppression of the union on the other hand:

The company management asserted that they can not negotiate with anyone except the workers actually employed in Hankuk Sanyun Inc., and they refused to negotiate at all for two months.

Since late June, the company refused to bargain misusing the newly amended labor laws and argued that they have the right to unilaterally cancel collective contract. The Ministry of Labor and the respective government offices assumed an indifferent attitude toward this case and did not make any efforts.

After a long and difficult struggle, the workers succeeded to get the company to the bargaining table, but the company started to clamp down on the union openly in October.

They said in a letter to the union, "Since we do not have any collective contract at this moment, full time union officials must return to their original posts on the factory floor.

The union must return the union office to the company. Statements and announcements from the union written on the walls and hanging banners must be pulled down. Persons from outside may not get into the company.

We will cut the electric power and the water supplies when the work is over. We will increase company security forces through use of a subcontractor in order to implement these measures". It showed naked oppression and threats toward the union.

(2) Violence by the 'Kusadae' to women employees and to a pregnant woman:

 Male-managers assaulted female-chief of a union who protested the suspension of water and power supply (they thorned down her on the paved street after turning her four times)

The company asked for 150 workers who would like to voluntary resign. For these people they announced that they will pay only the normal severance pay without retrenchment pay. They threatened the workers with a notice that if there were not 150 volunteers by November 15th, they will retrench them by force.

However, only an hour after issuing such a warning, the company mobilized male workers to assault women production workers. They invaded the labor union office, broke the wall, windows, and tore down hanging banners, statements and announcements of the union which were written on the walls.

(3) Illegal Lockout:

The company, without any apology for their behavior, announced a lockout. After that came cutting off the power and water. During this process, the company enticed male managers to assault union leaders, and three of the leaders had to be helped by the Rescue 119 - (emergency rescue team operated by the police in Korea) - and were taken to the emergency room in an hospital.

Each had been carried out - their four limbs grasped by different men - and was thrown down on the paved street three times in the heavy rain.

No one took notice of our situation in Korea, when we, Korean women workers were oppressed by a foreign capitalist.
Only a few news media reported on our situation. We shouted everywhere, but only just to hear the echo of our own voices coming back to us. The only ones who helped and defended us were the workers.

The solidarity actions of many workers in Changwon area, who risked being arrested, touched our heart.

(4) Public Indifference and Solidarity among Workers:

With all this kind of love and trust, we started to be certain that our struggle would end in a victory for us. We have learned a lot of things during our eight months struggle. We have learned how great our unity, our capacity for a united action, although women are often considered feeble and weak. Management must have been surprised that we have so much power.

Some of the union members had to resign for their marriage. They could have received two million Won from the company if they had withdrawn from the union.

But they wanted to remain union members in order to support the union, telling us in tears that they were so sorry about not being able to continue the struggle along with us. A union member who was expecting a baby, apologized for her not participating in our struggle; the one who was very near to give a birth dashed into the union office saying that she heard the news while she was on a maternity leave; when three union leaders started to go on a hunger strike, the rank and file members forbade the leaders to do it, although they had never failed to follow the union's policy till then. All of the union members, including a pregnant women, started to refuse lunch on order to persuade the leaders to break their hunger strike.

The day when the leaders had to stop their hunger strike before their 10th day, we all cried. For the last 4-5 months we have experienced economic difficulty because we have not received any wage due to the "no work, no wage principle."

Still the workers in Changwon area were considerate enough that they have made contributions to the strike fund with unsparing hands; These are all the expressions and evidences of love.

(5) The Struggle will not end yet:

Although we do not know when the struggle will be over, the women workers at Hannuk Sanyun will remember this struggle. They will remember that we have learned love and trust during the long fight. The women workers will keep something in their mind that caring for one another and love for one anther are the ultimate weapons for the workers.

We are convinced that we have already won, although we do not know the outcome yet. I express gratitude toward those workers in this area and in the whole country who supported us and gave us love. And we are preparing a bigger unity in the future.