August 9 - Workers Pay the Price

On this day in Labor History the year was 1979.  That was the day that young women workers at the YH Trading Company in Seoul, South Korea staged a sit-in.  The women made wigs for export.  The company had been one of the leading exporters in the nation.  But then the managers began to move the profits from the wig company to a shipping company under the same ownership, as well as to a film production company.  This drained the profits from the wig factory and left it in debt.  The owner shut down the company without warning, firing all of the employees.  These women did not only lose their jobs. Water and electricity were turned off at the factory dormitories where they lived.  A union represented the young women.  The union planned a strike at the building, but the police were called in to break it up.  The workers decided move their protest to the local headquarters of the New Democratic Party.   The party was in opposition to the leader of Seoul, President Park Chung Hee.  The fired women were welcomed at the New Democratic Party office.  There they decided to stage a sit-in to bring attention to their situation.  The worker’s sit-in only lasted three days.  Then 1,000 police stormed the building.  They overturned furniture and broke windows. They dragged the women out of the building violently.  One woman, 21-year old Kim Kyong-sook died in the raid She fell from the roof of the building in a clash with the police.  Four of the union leaders were sent to prison.  More than two hundred of the workers were expelled out of Seoul, back home to rural areas.