INTRODUCTION
Labor relations embody distributional issues of a society and constitute a
critical and often highly conflictual policy area. This is more pronounced in newly
democratized nations where labor issues have previously been dictated by state and elite
actions at the expense of union repression and exclusion. With the beginning of political
democratization that started in the late 1980s, workers and unions in Asia have tried to
transform existing labor relations systems and enhance their previously suppressed
political and economic rights.
Workers’ movements represented by organized unions in Korea and Taiwan,
particularly, present an interesting case of comparison. Despite almost two decades of
democratic deepening in Korea, the streets of Seoul are still filled with unionists
chanting slogans while the evening news programs rarely go a day without some story
on a labor strike. In contrast, union mobilization has become a seasonal event in Taiwan
and labor issues seem to have become integrated into the formal political process. This
variation of union activism in post-democratized Korea and Taiwan is the main question
this paper seeks to explain: Why and how have labor unions in Korea and Taiwan, two
Asian democracies with similar economic and political pasts, developed such a
divergent pattern of labor politics?
2
Convention