ABSTRACT
Whereas the previous chapter addressed school-based experiences that teachers in South Korea set out to reform, this current chapter investigates the context of industrial relations that defined the institutional relationships between teachers and their employers. The industrial relations contexts of teachers denied their opportunities to change their experiences of the negative practices in schools. Thus, Chunkyojo insisted that the attainment of legal status for the organisation was an essential step in the process of educational reforms in Korea. The movement also regarded its on-going illegality as a significant example of the social oppression of teachers, as members of the work force, as a result of the drive for national economic development, views which were expressed in statements such as the following:
The thrust towards legitimacy of Chunkyojo as a union organisation emerged well after the movement for educational reforms started. There was an escalation in attitude and strategy within the movement from the small discussion groups and networks in the early
1980s, to the collective action of the YMCA Declaration in 1986, to formation of a National Association in 1987, and finally to the establishment of the union in 1989. This progress towards a formal industrial organisation can be interpreted as an increasing recognition by the teachers that union status provided the only institutional avenue for pursuing their goals of educational reforms. For example, the unionised teachers believed that problems in schooling such as the competition, overcrowding, shortage of classroom resources and intrusive political ideology could be addressed only through a teachers’ union organisation which had the legal status accorded to unions. They recognised that the issues which they were struggling with on a daily basis in schools were manifestations of structural conditions that could be addressed only through the actions of an organised and legitimated teachers’ industrial organisation. They identified the existing legislative controls on teachers as a major structural feature defining the nature of teachers work and constraining the movement’s efforts to secure a basis for reform in educational culture in Korea. The teachers pursued the path to unionisation after the 1986 YMCA Declaration, when they asserted that ‘teachers’ rights should not be interfered with’ and that ‘independent teachers’ organisations should be established and their freedom of activities should be guaranteed and government interference and repression of these organisations should be prohibited’ (Chunkyojo 1990b, 2). The labour principles that were sought by the reform movement were the three basic conditions of trade unions:
• the right of teachers to form their own organisation to represent their interests to employers (the right of free association);
• the right of the teachers’ organisation to negotiate with employers on behalf of its members (the right of collective bargaining);
• the right of the teachers’ organisation to call for and co-ordinate activities by member teachers in support of their negotiating position (the right of collective action).
