It was right after the "attendance at work" struggle. About 70 male managers and union members came to the union office and the library which was used for the overnight struggle. They shouted, "We come to destroy the useless Labour Union!"

After the "attendance at work" struggle the next morning, the union leaders were having a meeting to discuss the countermeasures for the violation, where the male union members and managers had removed the protest poster of the violation the day before. The union leaders strongly protested against the removal and some of them got injured again.

They were immediately moved to a hospital, but they are still in serious condition. The West Kyongnam office of the National Democratic Metal Labour Union Federation regarded it as violence which was jointly carried out by the company and male workers. They censured them for their brutality and decided to launch a united countermeasure action.

The Union Office of Han Kuk Sanbon, where over 180 of a total 220 workers are women, showed their leading activities in the wage struggle in 1995. Their struggles encouraged the workers of Masan and Changwon areas. In the process of the wage struggle, the company constantly insisted, "The company is in crisis in its management. .... The company is not able to pay wages."

Even after the strike was over, the company did not pay wages and bonuses saying the company was in crisis which formed a unstable atmosphere. The company promoted some of the male union leaders who worked for the company during the wage struggle, and it used them to try to change the present union leaders. It failed due to the consolidated action of the union members.

The company declared, "We will sell the Changwon Electronics, which is a daughter firm of the Han Kuk Sanbon without mutual agreement with the union". The company tried to change the working places of some union leaders, but this action was protested by San Bon union members and local colleagues.

The company, which has showed its insincere and unfaithful attitude in collective bargaining, has encouraged the male union members to intimidate female union members insisting that the crisis of the company has been owing to the democratic union, which always organized constant strikes and struggles.

The company has tried to make workers leave the democratic workers' union. About 40 male workers and managers, supported by the company, have attempted to dissolve the union using all methods. At last they attacked the union office.

As shown above, there have been acute confrontations between men and women during the wage struggle in the working places where the major number of the workers are women. Why do the acute confrontations exist? There are three possible reasons as follows.

1. The most crucial reason is that the male workers have no clear workers' perspective and they are unable to understand the situation of the women workers.
2. The patriarchal authority of the male workers also results in men versus women confrontation.
3. The basic reason comes from the prompting of the company as a mean of dissolving the union.

How can we overcome the men versus women confrontation, which has been encouraged by society?
At first, we should help all members to have a clear understanding about the demands of the union in the process of preparing the wage struggle through sufficient education, promotion, and discussions.

When male workers go against the union decision, we should try to understand their opinions and what are the things they are afraid of through open discussion and forum rather than just ignoring their demands or confronting them emotionally.

We should not forget that our struggle direction is not against men but the company. If the male workers still come along with the violence in unity with the company in spite of our efforts, we should not be discouraged but stand firmly.

The once large company that employed some 6,700 workers, has constantly downsized in line with the policy of foreign-invested companies to move in search of a low-wage work force in developing countries in pursuit of profit. In the end, the factory shut down the Chunchon factory in 1994 and the Seoul factory in 1996. On February 3rd, the number of employees was 76 in Seoul, 800 in Chonju, 400 in AMK China branch, and 300 in a subcontract company.

In reply the labor union demanded that the company comply with the collective agreement which guaranteed a period of three months to prepare for job changes. Yet the company announced the plan for the move while the fifth joint labor-management conference was being held.

Without considering the fact that the workers lost the will to work due to such an announcement, the company kept threatening that it would withdraw its plan to wait till the end of February. It threatened that, "we will shut down on January 29th and then, "We will shut down on February 1st".

Without giving any thoughts to the effect on some 70 workers' lives, the date of closing down changed four times within one month. Then on February 3rd, a letter of dismissal was sent to all workers except for four in the General Affairs Department and the Business Department.

After our dismissal on February 3rd, about 70 workers continued to come to the factory, where the water and electricity had been cut, everyday to keep the company from removing the machines.

In addition, we set about publicizing our situation to expose the unjust dismissal due to the factory shut down, and demanded continuing negotiations with the company. Yet the company insisted that it could not negotiate with dismissed workers and that the matter of going against the collective agreement and the justness of dismissal by shut down should be decided according to the law.

The company at first proposed 200% compensation for workers with less than 5 years of service, and 300% for workers with more than 5 years. Yet, after a tight struggle with the company, we agreed on 300% compensation for workers with less than 5 years of service, 410% for those with more than 5 years, and 450% for those with more than 15 years of service. Also, a welfare fund set up through profits from vending machines and other sources was given to the labor union.

It seems that the company could be so confident while closing down because the government is relaxing regulations concerning dismissals. In such a situation, the fired workers are not protected at all according to the law. We are only angry and sorry with the reality that the companies that pursue only profits are sheltered the by law, while the common and diligent workers are often driven to the streets.

Through this fight, we felt that this problem of employment instability is not just the problem of small and medium industries but also that of large industry workers. If we do not recognize that employment instability is the problem of all workers and prepare a systematic resolution, nobody will be excluded from the possibility of facing unemployment through factory shut downs.

There are general decline of light manufacturing sector in decline in manufacturing because the heavy and chemical industries still occupied an important position in its economy.

But considerable decline in the light labour-intensive manufacturing industries such as garment and shoes was recorded in the past few internally, however, it has caused decisive changes in the social structure with widening gaps in income distribution and consumption levels.

In terms of number of workers, between the year of 1987 and 1992, the total number of production worker of the garment industry drops 31.8% while the shoe industry between 1991 and 1992 drops 26.2%. The decline of light manufacturing industries in Korea has disproportionately impacts on Women; the rate of decrease in women workers in the electronics industry in Korea is almost three times that for men between 1987 and 1992.

In Korea, though subcontracting production has been existed for a long time, it has expanded drastically in the 1980s and 1990s and is becoming a more institutionalized form of production in the garment and electronics industries. Subcontracting workers undergo a cut in wages, longer hours, harsh working conditions and less opportunities for labour organizing.

As we see in Korea, subcontracting workers are mostly married women. Those women workers suffer from lowered wage, irregular hours and exclusion from all benefits and welfare payments. Workers dispatched by sub-contracting agencies also have little protection for their rights because workers are no longer tired by the company where they actually do their work.

Organizing a Women Garment Workers Cooperatives

There are about 30 cooperatives in Korea now but I will concentrate to only one of cooperative which it has firmed as a cooperative and has relationship with Women Workers Organisation.

With such changes from industrial restructuring, women workers who have use to work in the garment industry job losses is every where even they work now but they are not secure when they are going to unemploy.

They can find a job in sub-contracting small companies with bad working conditions and even they work the work is not regular some times work over night. In that situation, some of garment workers who has been used to active in the trade union come together started to share about their difficulties working and specially married women who faced the most difficulties get job and even they get job is not secure. This kind of sharing promoted them to think more about cooperative.

"At the beginning, we are not sure what we can do for our rife but our discussion on cooperative was keep going and not stop. Some of us already work at home-based and some of them buy their own machine and sub-contracted to some of contractors and their experiences promoted our idea more because they have many difficulties to get work from contractor". depeat difficulties, they come to conclusion that even they are not acting in the social movement but they found out commonalities among themselves which was they are garment worker has been working more then 15 years in that area but now they left the company but they are looking for a job or working at the small sub-contract companies even they work there they are not satisfied on their job and they do not know when they are going to ross their job from now.

The sharing became more practical mater. Idea come to work together at the same place first then they think more and get more idea from outside friends. Finally they got many positive support from friends and organization. Then five of them diffided to organise a cooperative.

For preparation of this cooperative, they need to study on market and they found that even they work a long time in garment sector they worked part-line work so they were not sure whether they can make cloth by them selves. They decided to work in the small company for three month to learn and get use by themselves. Five of them first pay share and get support from Inchun WWA and get some loan from friends. With the amount they were able to land a small place and bough sewing machine.

After three month preparation work and finally 5 of them decided to set-up a cooperative which it call OCK NU RY GARMENT PRODUCTION COOPERATIVE in July of 1994. "We initiate to pay personal capital about won. 500,000 each one of us and get support from Inchun Women Workers Association, it was great help us to lend a place for our cooperative. Then we set a principle for our cooperative; the member if some one want to be a member of the cooperative then the person should be working in the cooperative and has to pay share capital amount minimum won. 500,000".

There is one another workers production cooperative which it call Han Baek Production Cooperative. It was set-up in Jan. 1995. In this cooperative has 9 members and capital share about 2,000,000 won.( about US$ 2,700) inch one person.

This cooperative is in Seoul so the salary is higher then Inchun cooperative which they set salary about won. 800,000 to 850,000. They has been working in garment company for a long and has been working in this area for a long so they got order through friends. Also, they express of difficulties with capital because they do not have capital they can not approach to big company.

In those cooperatives, most of member has experience active in the trade union before, they share that after their marriage they facing difficulties to survive and they said that the consciousness become individualize their lives and thinks become nero and their is no space to think about come society and common dream think only her own problem and difficulties.

When they found that situation they felt some thing is laking in their lives and they started to meet friends who was working and acting together in the trade union movement. It was start point, they shared about their lives and thinks together and found that those of them have same feeling and worry about on going their lives.

At the first four of them started and worked in this cooperative. The cooperative is a sub-contract company but they can not get link directly with big companies, they said if they want do direct contract with mother company then they need to have a big amount of capital so they are not try to link direct contract in stead they get contract through middle men.

"Of course our income is lower then other pactory and our cooperative is not secure, but we are very satisfied working in here". In pact, they have experience on bankrupt. A mother company where they got order contract has bankrupt so middle men said that he has also difficulty to managing his company because of the mother company bankrupt.

Now, they have already some good links with middle men and with middle scare sub-contract companies in Inchun. They have always oder so they do no have problem right now.

They set-up a principle on their profit share; Set a salary scare, maternity leave about 60 days with full payment, working hours 9:30am to 7:00 pm payment amount won.600,000 (US$800) and among the profit 50% of them will re fund for promoting cooperative, 20% of them pay to share holder, 20% of profit share to the workers who is working in the cooperative according to working years and 10% of profit will support to organisations.

When they have over time work then they will share 150%. The amount is not so much it is even lower then other small sub-contract company but the member of cooperative said that they are very satisfied and happy to work there.

I ask why? they said " before when we work in the company, we are just worker we can not make any decision on our work what ever the supper baser ask us to do we have to do but here we decision what kind work that we do how to do it and most of happiness would be it is belong to ours that might be make us happy and meaningful". Every body work in the line and one of the person who is uncharged is more act as a manager dealing with middle men.

Difficulties

The most difficulties for this cooperative is that they are sub-contract company which they depend to middle men. This cooperative is well known so there is no problem to get order contract from company. They mostly make cloth of well known brand and sale it in the big department store.

As the cooperative has experience about a mother company bankrupt, it is most difficulties we do not have any whitten contract paper with middle men and companies and if we have to suit the middle men in this case if the company doesn't have enough capital then we can not get any money from the middle men. When the mother company closed down or bankrupt then middle men also got difficulties and when the middle men has bankrupt then sub-contract company like this cooperative is getting more difficulties.

There is a case that they hold the production which they produce and the middle men has closed down the company in this case they try to negociant with the mother company that they will give the production to the company and you give us money if not then we will sale it to market but it was not successes the mother company did not answer to them which means that the company ignorant in it..

So they are always secure on their business to continue it as sub-contract company. So now, we try to have education and training program twice a year, through the training meeting and confirm about our philosophy on production and life cooperative among our members we will study about our future and discuss about developing our cooperative in the society and for the society. Han Baek Cooperative also said that they have seen many who has been orgamise a production cooperative but they closed down.

Even it is difficulty to keep continue they try their best so they are well known among the garment factories but they are not satisfied with this they would like to have their own blend and market in the department store but it is not yet possible for them because of lock of capital. The cooperative for long term strategy is to develop their own production and get their own blend but now difficulties of capital it is not yet go for it. As role of Women Workers Association is that 4 of the cooperative members are their member too and since they has put share in the cooperative the role would be more supportive to the cooperative but they do not have resources to provide services to them.

And also yet come to discuss to put their time to study and pressing the government for supporting this kind of cooperative. It is because a short time experience on it. Some call Workers Management Policy Institute is try to develop workers cooperative. According to this institute, there are about 30 cooperative but they can say that only two cooperative can call as workers cooperative. The institute try to bring them together to talk about cooperative and how to manage cooperative.

The declaration stated that Korean women workers have long been demanding women's rights in society and job security for women workers. In the past, through our struggle we have made step-by-step progress on improving and developing job security, maternity protection, payment of child-care leave under the social security system, on promoting equality, and the right to organize and negotiate, and finally on promoting a democratic Korean society.

Until now the government has promulgated the view that as a democratic government they are concerned with women and workers' issues, but in practice they only make use of women workers in their economic development plan, and continually ignore or forget work innovation policy for workers.

We continue to organize and struggle to promote our situation in a basically discriminatory society.
The KWWAU, on the occasion of celebrating the 88th 3.8 International Day, declare our demandsa:

• We are continuing to struggle against dispatched workers' law which has been introduced by management
• We are against the promotion of informal sectors and we are asking and campaigning to change the labor law to provide temporary workers with automatic transfer to a regular position after three months work.
• We urge women's job promotion, and for this the government office and public services should implement a policy of employing women in 20% of all positions at all levels.
• Labor law and the application of Worker's Accident Compensation Insurance should be expanded to workplaces with less than 5 workers, and the labor law should cover or apply to temporary workers as well.
• We are in the forefront in demanding a bill or law protecting home-based workers.
• We urge the government to concentrate on the promotion of the principle of "Equal job, equal payment" and to abolish all kinds of discrimination in employment.
• We demand 90 days of maternity leave and 7 days of parental, etc...
• Workplaces with 150 workers (men and women) should provide day-care facilities and get support for this from the government.
• The government should provide child-care subsidies for parents.

Commemorative activities to celebrate International Women's Day were held in Inchon, Pusan, Ma-chang and Kwang-Ju. The KWWAU Inchon branch held these activities on March 10th at the Inchon University Hall.

More than 500 women and men workers and civilians participated. The ceremony began with the declaration, and was followed by singing from a cultural group and groups of day-care center teachers.
This was followed by a drama called Markshim Goriki's "Mother" which was performed by the cultural group "Som Kyul" (this cultural group is organized by workers in the Inchon area)

The Ma-chang KWWAU branch held its ceremony on March 8th at the YMCA hall. The Ma-chang Women Workers Association jointly organized this event together with women's associations in the Ma-chang region, the Federation of Democratic Metal Workers unions and the Ma-chang women students union.

About 400 participants attended, and the celebration was started with a speech by a representative from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). This second half of this event was begun with a statement from the joint organizing committee, followed by cultural performance from different unions and organizations (including singing, short drama and a speech on women's lives etc.)

The Kwang-Ju Women Workers Association organized a forum on government policy on Women for the 88th 3.8 International Day with nine different groups in the region. This was held on March 7th in the evening at the YWCA building, with about 200 people taking part.

This forum included discussion on women's policy, the law related to women and the possibility of changing to an alternative system for women, and also included hearing the plans for women's policy from different political parties.

The Pusan Branch also organized an event for International Women's Day. The theme was "Women - promoting the quality of women's live; Women make the world". It was held on March 10th at the Pusan City Hall. About 500 women and men participated in this event. The first part of this program comprised speeches which was followed by cultural performances.

These included dance, singing by women's groups and workers' cultural groups, and participants came out onto the streets dressed with masks to publicize International Women's Day to the general public. In addition there was a photo exhibition on occupational accidents where LG women workers have been affected by chemical solvents and family violence etc.

Through these activities women's self-awareness about their situation increased and solutions to address these problems which destroy women's health were raised.

These employment changes for women workers demand new organizational activity by women workers' associations. This is because it is impossible to reflect an understanding of irregular occupations and women workers in the newly increasing service industry with only the former activities based on one organized mass. Therefore based on discussions of how women workers' associations will cope with women's employment changes, we will firstly describe changes in women employment according to the statistics.

1. A steady increase in women's economic activity

   By 1994 the rate of women's economic participation had steadily increased to 47.9%, and currently the percentage of women workers is as much as 40% of the economically active population.

   Table 1) Changes in the rate of women, participants and economically active population in terms of year and gender.
   

   	Rate of Economic active participation		pupucation economically active rate			Non Active pupulation
   Year	F.	M.	Total.	F.	F. Rate.	Total	F.	F. Rate.
   80	42.8	76.4	14431	5412	37.5	10881	7645	70.3
   85	41.9	72.3	15592	5975	38.3	12935	8741	67.6
   90	47.0	73.9	18487	7474	40.4	12314	8423	68.4
   93	47.2	75.8	19754	7887	39.9
   94	47.9

   Source: National Office of statistics, "Annual report on the economically active population" (because of the low rate of economic activity by fourteen year olds since 1986, the youngest age group of the subjects of the investigation was changed from fourteen to fifteen.)

2. Women's employment by economic sector.
   Despite the marked decrease in the number of women workers in the agriculture and manufacturing industry, the number of women workers in the service sector has risen markedly.

   According to the total industry rate, the agriculture industry (14.8%) and the manufacturing industry (24.1%) decreased while the service industry (61.0%) shows a marked increase. These changes in the economic structure had an impact on women's employment as the number of occupants in the service industry increased rapidly while those in the manufacturing industry decreased rapidly.

   Table 2) Trends in the number of employed women by employment sector.
   

   	Agriculture & forest, fishery	Mining & manufacture	Social indirect capital & other service sectors
   1980	39.0%	22.3%	38.7%
   1985	27.8%	23.2%	49.0%
   1990	20.4%	28.0%	51.8%
   1993	17.0%	23.0%	60.0%

   Source: ibid. Though the number of economically active women steadily increased, most of the women employees work in a place of business of less than 5 persons.

3. Increase in the number of married women workers.

   According to the proportion of married women workers by economic sector in 1992, out of 6,702,000 workers, 5,139,000 (with a partner: 4,212,000; without a partner: 926,000) are married, while 1,563,000 workers are not married, thus married women workers account for 76% of the total. The proportion of married women workers in manufacturing is 68% and in the service industry 69.2%. The proportion of married workers in the manufacturing industry is increasing markedly.

4. The majority of women workers work in companies with less than five employees.

   In 1993, 28.6% of the workers employed in a workplace with less than five employees were women, and 28.7% of workers working in companies of less than 10 employees were women. Also, according to the "Report on the survey of wage structure in 1992" 62.7% of all women workers are working in companies with less than five employees, which means that about two-thirds of women workers work in small scale companies.

5. 60% of women workers work in low-skill occupations.

   Table 3) Women's employment by occupational type
   

   Classification	Women Rate	%
   Public, High rank officers & Managers	4.9	0.3
   Professionalist	37.0	5.1
   Engineers & mid professionalists	17.1	4.4
   Clerical workers	53.4	13.9
   Service workers, shop and market’s sellers	50.6	26.8
   Farming & Skilled labor	47.3	25.7
   Technical engineers & Recared engineers	23.1	8.4
   Mechanists	18.8	5.8
   Simple working labors	41.4	9.6

   Source: National office of statistics, "Report on the survey of age structures"

6. The marked increase of irregular workers.
   1. Women day workers

      According to the "Report of the survey of wage structure" by the national office of statistics, 3,221,000 women employees excluding employers, independent enterprises and non-paid family managers out of 6,702,000 persons, work in very unstable conditions, as 2,658,000 of them are regular workers and 564,000 are day workers.

   2. The situation of part-time employees

      Part time workers in Korea have increased markedly from 231,000 in 1980 to 570,000 in 1993. Therefore the proportion of part time workers out of total workers increased from 3.6% in 1980 to 4.3% in 1990, and 4.9% in 1993. This rate is rather low compared to other nations, but because the majority of part time workers are married women, and they are concentrated in restricted occupations, such an introduction of a new form of employment to specific companies and industries is bound to have influence.

      According to the form of employment of part time workers, while 71% out of all part time workers had temporary employment contracts with less than a month, the number decreased to 66.1% in 1985, 58.5% in 1990, 48.8% in 1993. This tendency shows that the period of employment contract has increased compared to the fact that women workers in temporary part time occupations decreased from 76.4% in 1980 to 51.4% in 1993. In addition, the rate of female temporary part time jobs tends to still be high compared to males.

      If one considers the part time worker's marriage rate, the rate of married workers has tended to decrease since 1985, from 81.4% in 1980, to 83.1% in 1985, to 77.1% in 1990, and to 73.3% in 1993. The rate of increase of unmarried and married workers in the same period is 19.5% and 9.4% respectively.

      The higher rate of increase of unmarried part time workers is because the rate of increase of married part time workers has decreased relatively, and unmarried part time women workers have largely increased compared to the absolute numerical value. However according to the absolute numerical value, the majority of part time workers, both male and female are still married workers.

      If one considers the age of part time workers, compared to that of 1980, the number of workers in the age groups of 15~19 and above 40 have decreased while workers between ages 20 to 39 have increased relatively.

      This means that, like most other nations, women in the age group of 25~39 and males in the advanced age group in Korea are increasingly taking part time jobs. Due to extreme discrimination according to age in the labor market in Korea, women over 30 years of age who decide to participate in the labor market have to work in a part time job regardless of their education level since it is impossible to get a full time job.

      Table 4) The number of part time workers in terms of year and gender
      

      Total Workers			Women Workers			Rate of Women Work by hour (part-time)
      Wage labor	Work the hour labor	Workby the hour labor	Wage labor	Work by the hour labor	Work by the hour labor
      1980	6,464	231	3.6	2,049	106	5.2	45.9
      1985	8,104	248	3.1	2,810	134	4.8	54.0
      1990	10,865	463	4.3	4,159	305	7.3	65.9
      1993	11,751	570	4.9	4,404	370	8.4	84.9

      Source: National office of statistics, "Annual reports on the economically active population", primary source tape, yearly reports Women in the age group of 25~39 and males in the advanced age have the majority of the part time jobs.

      Table 5) The distribution of women part time workers in terms of age groups (unit:%)
      

      Age	15-19	20-24	25-29	30-34	35-39	40-44	45-49	Over the 50
      1980	5.7	12.4	11.4	13.3	12.4	13.3	8.6	22.9
      1985	3.0	9.7	18.7	14.9	16.4	9.7	9.7	17.9
      1990	4.2	14.3	16.9	20.8	12.7	9.8	5.9	15.3
      1993	3.8	15.7	17.0	18.9	16.8	8.6	5.4	13.8

      Source: ibid.

      In terms of occupational type, the rate of women part time workers in the service and manufacturing industry is 32.4% and 34.3% respectively, and 17.0% are in the sales industry. Compared to other nations, this indicates that the percentage of temporary occupations in sales is relatively high.

      If one considers division by industry, it can be seen that 75.8% of all women part time workers work in nine different types of industries: domestic services, educational services, repair of sales products, services connected to agriculture and forestry, hospitality industry, security and pension industry, furniture manufacture, and fur manufacturing industry.

      In terms of division by occupational type, women part time workers, work mostly in manufacturing, specialized skills and administration, the services and the sales industry and so on. Compared to other nations, the rate of specialized skill, administration and manufacturing is relatively high.

      By occupation, 86.8% of women part time workers work in nine occupational types such as; peddling and simple services, engineering, professional education, personal security service, agriculture and fishing industry, mining, architecture, manufacturing, driving, modeling sales and advertizing, handling machinery and teaching assistance. Further 56.5% of women part time workers work in a work place with less than 5 persons.

   3. The situation of temporary jobs

      The number of temporary workers with contracts under one year was 1,718,000 in 1993 and is substantially larger than the number of full time workers. The number of such temporary workers has continued to increase since 1980, and reached 1,822,000 in 1990.

      The numbers appear to have decreased a little recently. Yet, although the percentage of women in temporary work was 33.3% in 1980, it increased constantly to 46.2% in 1993. The ratio of temporary workers decreased from 81.1% in 1980 to 75.3% in 1993. On the contrary, the ratio of temporary worker substantially increased from 82% in 1980 to 196% in 1993. This reflects the fact that the form of employment is becoming more unstable.

      Most of the increase in temporary workers is accounted for by female workers. Most of them were in their late thirties and a considerable number of them were over 50.

      When the distribution of industrial classification of female temporary workers is examined (1993 statistics), most women are engaged in the manufacturing industry (41.5%), wholesale and retail trade (19.4%), and social service jobs (15.45%). When the occupational classification is considered, the most common occupation was production labor (53.3%) followed by services (24.9%), agriculture and fisheries (11.5%), and sales (7.5%).

      Further, 60.1% of female temporary workers were employed in businesses with less than 5 employees. Although such workers were in an employed situation, the ratio of those who wanted to change jobs was high, because of unstable employment, low wages, and a poor working environment.

   4. Dispatched Workers
      Estimation of Ministry of Labor : over 1000 corporations , over 100,000 workers
      Estimation of Labor ministry : over 3000 corporations, over 300,000 workers
      Estimation of Corporations : over 6000 corporations, over 600,000 workers
      Although the estimations differ, the statistics above show that the use of dispatched workers is quite widespread. Above all, 51.2% of such workers are females, and this percentage rises to 100% in sales and 75% in assistant of clerical worker, which shows that the ratio of female laborers as dispatched workers is quite high.
7. The ratio of organized women workers is low.

   The organization rate all labor in 1993 was 15.6% and is constantly decreasing. The organization rate of female workers in 8.8%, which is considerably below average. In particular, the organization rate in the manufacturing industry, which was quite high in the eighties, has abruptly decreased.

   The reason for such a decrease in the organization rate for female laborers lies in a significant decrease in the number of workers in manufacturing industries due to factories shutting down or moving overseas; a decrease in labor demand due to automation; movement of the labor force to services due to low wages and poor working conditions; and evasion of employment in manufacturing jobs.

   Other reasons could be the increase of female workers in businesses with less than five employees, the sharp increase of married female workers in the labor market, and the increase in irregular jobs.