South Korean workers and the struggle against

Public Forum: South Korean workers and the struggle against
globalization
Tuesday April 6, 2004 6-9pm
Institute for Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley

U.S. Premiere of "Friend or Foe," documentary of KT non-standard workers
union
Followed by Panel Discussion with Filmmaker, Jiyoung Lee, and Labor
Media Activist, Myoung Joon Kim

Sponsored by Korea Solidarity Committee, LaborTech and the Center for
Labor Education, UC Berkeley

About "Friend or Foe"
Produced by Labor News Production, Directed by Jiyoung Lee, 2003,
119min

"Friend or Foe" documents the bitter struggle of contracted workers at
KT (Korean Telecommunication) against globalization. Under the
imperatives of structural adjustment, KT forced workers to work under
"non-regular" contracts at lower pay, heightened job insecurity and
limited legal protection vis-à-vis regularly-employed workers. When the
company announced its new so-called downsizing plan in 2000, they fired
7,000 contract workers. The targeted workers launched a new union and
waged a bitter struggle. After 517 consecutive days, the union lost, in
the face of police oppression and betrayal by regularly-employed
workers. "Friend or Foe" exposes the serious situation imposed by
globalization on workers compelled to accept non-regular status and
provides critical analysis of the weaknesses of the current labor
movement. Directed by award-winning female director Jiyoung Lee who won
the Best Documentary prize at the 2002 Pusan International Film
Festival.

Biography of Panelists
Myoungjoon Kim is a member of the independent labor video activist
organization, Labor News Production (http://www.lnp89.org), president of
local media center MediACT (http://www.mediact.org) and board member of
JinboNet (http://www.jinbo.net). (Contact : jkim@mediact.org) He has
been integral in the promotion of labor media activism and the
implementation and legislation of public access TV. Kim has also been
an advocate on issues such as independent film and video, documentary,
and the internet.

Jiyoung Lee is currently a member of Labor News Production
(http://www.lnp89.org). She made her debut with Labor News16, Video
Magazine (1994) and has made several documentaries, such as "The Law of
Labor" (1995), "General Strike 1.2" (1997) and "Fired Workers"(1996).
"On the Right Track (2002) , a documentary about the rail workers
struggle for a democratic union won the Best Documentary award (Woonpa
Award) at 7th Pusan International film festival (2002). Her latest work,
"Friend or
Foe" (2003) chronicles the Korean telecommunication non-regular workers
union struggle against mass dismissals.

For more info, visit http://www.koreasolidarity.org or contact
info@koreasolidarity.org
co-sponsored by LaborTech
http://www.labortech2004.org