[vol.22] [The Action Center for Women's Unemployment] Job-seekers doing it for themselves

 

The Action Center for Women's Unemployment Job-seekers doing it for themselves   - An alternative for middle-aged women workers; Doorae of Puchon, the Professional Domestic Helpers' Association of Pusan -   Here we introduce the self-reliant groups of women workers who are seeking jobs by themselves. They are Doorae of Puchon and the Professional Domestic Helpers' Association of Pusan. Both groups match job-seekers and employers. Most of the members are middle-aged or over. They all encounter difficulties getting a new job. The members organize and operate their group by themselves in order to overcome unemployment. Motivated by vocational training for unemployed female family heads   There are middle-aged women who have been to countless interviews but have never been successful, who have no husband or income source but are still responsible for finding a livelihood, whose sons or daughters have been made redundant and are thus dependent upon them in spite of their old age... These women have gathered together and formed a group. It is  "Doorae" in Puchon.   At the present time - March, 2000 - the membership exceeds 40. Most of them are aged between 40 to 50 and some of them are over 60. Their first meeting occurred through the "Vocational Training for the unemployed women family heads" organized by WWA and sponsored by the Ministry of Labor. They were trained as nannies and nursing assistants. After the training, they were enthusiastic to start working but could find no place that would hire them. When they enquired at some recruitment agencies, they found that the application fee was very high and the chances of success slim.  Therefore they came to a decision: "Let's create work opportunities independently, by publicizing ourselves". The principle of the group funding was agreed as the collection of small membership fees and the contribution of a certain percentage of the payment the women would eventually receive from their new workplaces. Their first funds - 100,000 won (US$90) - were collected through a bazaar held on Children's Day and organized by several local groups. They used these first funds to produce a brochure, which publicized their services and the means to reach them. They distributed the brochure in front of department stores and hospitals. Job offers were given to those who could fit to the requirements from offerers. Their membership fee was W3,000 (about US$2.30) and the members contributed a further 2% of their wage. In August, they began a new venture, providing and delivering lunch boxes. They then ordered memo sets to be printed with their group name and contact number, which were distributed to general hospitals to publicize their nursing assistants.  Through May and June their name began to become known and the enterprise began to take off. This was owing to the efforts of the members and the support from local newsletters, which allowed them to advertise free of charge. They received more and more enquiries from people seeking domestic helpers, maternity assistants, home-stay nurses, and so on. All their clients have so far been satisfied with their work and have contributed by word of mouth to their growing reputation. Offers for secure jobs gradually increase  In October, they were offered between 50 and 80 positions. In January and February, this droppedto 40 - perhaps they think due to the solar and lunar new years. One positive sign is that the offers for nannies and live-in nurses are increasing rather than for domestic helpers. These jobs tend to be more secure. At the moment, most of the members are in work, except those who cannot for personal reasons.   They hold a leaders' meeting and general members' meeting once a month. In the meetings, the present situation of the members' employment and financial reports are discussed. They also talk about the next month's agenda. Every month they accept new members through membership training.   Problems and difficulties  Job offers are increasing and more members are finding stable jobs which give them hope for the future. However, there are some basic and chronic problems.  First, the financial problem. They need to employ a full-time staff member to manage their members and make recruiting arrangements. But this is impossible as they are operating on their membership fees and members' contributions alone.  They cannot rely on the staff at WWA any more.  Second, the changeability of their membership. The group organizers emphasize cooperation and self-reliance, but as most of the members are past middle age and are from poor family backgrounds, there is a lack of suitable personal adaptation, and the members tend to be noncommittal. With these conditions it is difficult to achieve a spirit of coordination and self-reliance among the members.   Third, the long-term vision of Doorae. Most of the work carried out by the Doorae members is not yet categorized as formal labor. This means they are not legally recognized as workers. On the bright side, as the need for this kind of work increases in the future - as more women work and consequently more home help is required - there will be a lot more employment opportunities.   Therefore one urgent and essential goal is the legal formalization of their work. For instance, the assistant nurses' jobs could be linked with a free nursing system for poor families in order to develop their work in a third sector. At the moment nannies and maternity assistants as yet have no association. In this case, it would be possible to form links with local welfare centers or to establish a new association which would control wages and connect workers with employers.  We should decide how to deal with the future vision of Doorae - which is closely related to the problem of women's poverty. The future direction of Doorae depends on this. Establishment of the Professional Domestic Helpers' Association   The Professional Domestic Helpers'   Association was established on July 3, 1999 by one hundred members. In April, 1999, the Working Women's House held vocational training sessions for domestic helping work. The training participants continued to meet every month and they hit upon the idea of establishing the association. Twenty members formed the preparatory committee of the association. The committee members met at night because they had to work during the daytime. Even though they were very tired they were happy and enthusiastic to work at night for the establishment of the association. They had to make lots of phone calls and even suffered sore throats due to talking so much on the phone. They held many discussions on the regulations and procedure of setting up the association. They also organized membership training. Their members are aged between 30 and 50. Finally they made their constitution. The Professional Domestic Helpers' Association is; 1. a self-reliant organization in which the middle-aged members seek employment independently 2. an organization geared toward professionalizing the domestic helpers' work which is increasingly in demand as more women are working 3. an organization based on the community spirit inherited from our ancestors, whose traditional spirit embraced mutual assistance in order to increase the quality of lives 4. an organization which cultivates women's communal culture and spirit of mutual assistance towards female solidarity   The association was set up through the hard work of women who want to get through the IMF economic crisis. Craft Union, a self-reliant organization   The association is a craft union of general domestic helpers' which is operated by the women themselves. They have a chairwoman, vice- chairwoman, secretary general, auditor, and a dept. of public relations, a dept. of marketing, a dept. of organization, and four executive committees (assistant home nurses, domestic helpers, nannies, and maternity assistants). The four executive committees meet every month and they also hold a general meeting once every two months and a monthly members' meeting. The leaders are elected through the general assembly. The membership fee is W10,000 for registration and W10,000 per month. One of the members works in the office to manage office work. Spirit of coordination and improvement of professionalism   They have made great achievements in the administration, organization, and publicizing of their work. The membership spirit and members' consciousness have also improved. They have focused on stabilizing the organization. In the process, they failed to pay enough attention to fostering solidarity within the organization, and therefore some newcomers regard the association merely as a job arrangement office. The members have realized that they should provide more activities to strengthen the membership and feelings of solidarity. The aims for 2000 are to increase the profile of the home-helping profession and to strengthen the unity and coordination of the members. They are also planning to publish a monthly newsletter, monitor the members' situation, hold picnics, leadership training, and new membership training. As an alternative   Immediate goals are to achieve self-financing, to provide constant training programs for members, to improve the independence of the members, and to develop and create more labor areas. As the association is self-reliant and functional organization, if possible, they would like to register as a craft union or to get assistance from the irregular women workers' trade union.   It is hard to guarantee jobs for women past middle age and for the irregular women workers to guarantee their rights alone. Therefore, it is essential for them to develop more links and solidarity with other women's organizations or other related organizations.  It is impossible to express the suffering of the people kicked out from their workplaces with the IMF economic crisis. Under the circumstances, the organizations were established by the women themselves as a way to tackle the social problem of unemployment.  We can renew hope through the community spirit which leads people to help each other and share their difficulties and joys together with their neighbors.    Korea Working Women's Network 2000

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