NEW UNIONISM AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE KOREAN INDUSTRIAL-RELATIONS SYSTEM

This article explores the impact of new unionism on the transformation of the Korean industrial relations (IR) system at both national and e nterprise level. It is argued that the presence of a strong union move ment added a unique dimension to the structural shift of Korea from lo w-cost export-oriented industrialization (EOI) to higher value-added E OI, different from other Asian newly industrialized countries (NICs). Employees' new found strength brought on a development of internal lab our markets in large companies, forcing management to adopt new IR/HRM (human resource management) policies. The author notes two different orientations, solidarity-oriented industrial unionism and microcorpora tistic enterprise unionism, within the Korean labour movement. The art icle attempts to make a comparison of IR between Japan and Korea, high lighting differences as well as similarities.