Organizing the young precariat in South Korea: A case study of the Youth Community Union

Abstract

With the neoliberal turn, young people constitute a large part of the insecure class of workers, or the precariat. Given the transient nature of their employment, members of the young precariat face structural barriers that hinder their efforts to organize themselves into trade unions. In this article, the three key barriers to their organizing efforts are identified as underdeveloped common identities, scarce material resources, and inability to utilize conventional trade union resistance methods. Drawing upon social movement theory, this study explores the extent to which the Youth Community Union in South Korea has successfully handled these barriers to represent young, temporary workers.