Labour Polarization: Labour Aristocracy Versus Irregular Workers in Post-development Korea

Focusing on the on-going conflict between the so-called ‘labor aristocracy’ of regular workers of large firms in heavy and chemical industry and irregular workers who comprise 45% of all wage earners in South Korean society, this chapter examines labor polarization in post-developmental Korea. The chapter argues that the Korean case of ‘supercapitalism’ drove not only chaebol to become far more competitive, global and innovative, but also drove the large-firm trade unions to corporatize their management structures, through which regular skilled workers and their militant unions exploit irregular workers as a buffer for their own company-based union interests in today’s post-developmental Korea.