ABSTRACT

The long legacy of authoritarian labor repression enormously influenced postauthoritarian labor movements, both negatively and positively. Data show that most white-collar workers joined unions to improve their economic and work conditions (Cho and Yun 1994). Movement initiatives had to promote material interests to secure members’ “willingness to act” as a collective (Offe and Wiesenthal 1980). An interviewee affirmed, “The primary incentives that inspire union members to voluntarily become involved in collective action necessary for achieving movement goals are the issues closely related to their personal welfare, notably wage increases” (T’ae-il Kim 1994). Accordingly, members readily endorsed collective actionwhen employers resisted efforts to improve their socioeconomic situation. Economism reflected members’ pragmatic rationality at the beginning of white-collar unionism despite their vibrant support for political democratization in the June Democratization Struggle (Table 4.1). If their primary labor union mandate-improved socioeconomic conditions-conflicted with employer priorities in collective bargaining, union members willingly joined collective action to achieve it. Wage increases and economic rewards invariably dominated other labor dispute issues after 1987 (Table 4.2).