Labour polarization: Labour aristocracy versus irregular workers in post-development Korea

Focusing on the on-going conflict between the so-called labor aristocracy of regular workers of large firms in heavy and chemical industry and irregular workers who comprise 45% of all wage earners in South Korean society, this chapter examines labor polarization in post-developmental Korea. The chapter argues that the Korean case of supercapitalism drove not only chaebol to become far more competitive, global and innovative, but also drove the large-firm trade unions to corporatize their management structures, through which regular skilled workers and their militant unions exploit irregular workers as a buffer for their own company-based union interests in todays post-developmental Korea.