ABSTRACT
When organized nationwide after 1987, white-collar unions faced widespread criticism. Blue-collar labor movements painted white-collar workers as free-riders in a political space created by their anti-dictatorship struggle. Many blue-collar workers believed that relatively high white-collar wages despite paltry union activity and density were a by-product of militant blue-collar movements and that white-collar workers, though not opponents, were “superior” supervisors, rather than movement colleagues. However, no antagonistic fissure between blue-and white-collar labor movements opened in Korea, unlike some Western societies, notably Germany and Britain (Hartfiel 1966; Kocka 1980; 1981; Lockwood 1989; Speier 1986).
