They Are Not Machines by Chun Soonok

Author:Chun Soonok [Soonok, Chun]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General, Business & Economics, International
ISBN: 9781351879521
Google: m8w3DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-09-29T03:28:33+00:00

Notes

1 The financial collapse of the Weimar Republic in 1922-1923 is a classic exemplar of the meaninglessness of 'wage levels' being recorded in isolation as an index of prosperity or poverty. At the height of German inflation, one US dollar equated with 136,000,000,000 marks. Thus, a 'Deutschmark billionaire' could not even afford to buy half a kilo of butter.

2 As described by the many ex-Peace Market workers interviewed November 1997-January 1998 and November 1998-February 1999. The description also accords with the author's own experience, and the research of Chun Tae-il.

3 This was despite the fact that the exterior of the building had been freshly decorated for the benefit of visiting delegates from North Korea (Interview, diary author, December 1997).

4 Kimchi is made by pickling the large Korean radish, cabbage, or the Korean equivalent of Chinese leaves, in salt, garlic, red chilli peppers, and other ingredients to taste. It can be eaten cold, or cooked with rice and fish, etc. Kimchi is arguably the most important single food item to a Korean; more so even than rice, because it has deep cultural and emotional connotations which no other staple possesses. Korean women, and some Korean men, take great pride in the quality of their home-made kimchi, and if there is one thing a Korean abroad misses more than anything else, other than family, it is the distinctive taste of kimchi. Kimchi of the highest quality is expensive, however, and workers in the Peace Market could afford only the lowest.

5 Whilst this might appear to be the only rational means of conducting wage assessment under the piece-work scheme it was not normal procedure in the Peace Market during the 1960s and 1970s, where workers rarely knew how much they would receive until the job had been completed. Thus, the owners and the jaedanshas would regularly collude in order to maintain profit and shift the effects of any business downturn away from their own returns and onto the remuneration of the workers (Group discussion, Peace Market women workers, January 1999). Furthermore, they clearly took advantage of the truism that there is little leverage to be gained by workers contesting a piece-work rate after the job is finished.

6 This fact did not emerge until the interview itself because throughout the author's time of employment in the factory the owner left the day-to-day management to others while he attended to business elsewhere.

7 This case was related to the author by Kim Hae-soo, the oya-machinist who was the prime mover in the action. Kim Hae-soo was a member of the Chonggye Union and had attended the Acacia Meeting labour education programme (see Chapter 9).

8 Wage rates and purchasing power are discussed in later sections of this chapter, but in order to place this incident in sharper perspective it should be noted that in 1974, 160 won would buy two cups of rice or a bar of soap. Furthermore, this 160 won had to be shared between two machinists and two shidas.

9 What is euphemistically called 'rice'

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