Asia Swany was a company located in the city of Jeonbuk Province, called Iri Free Trade Zone (currently named Iksan), which manufactured skiing gloves back in 1989. Most of the laborers working with this company were young women in their mid and late teens or early 20’s. Here they worked in order to finance their education and support the livelihood of their families. They are led to work in order to take responsibility for the livelihood of their family and continue their...more

Asia Swany was a company located in the city of Jeonbuk Province, called Iri Free Trade Zone (currently named Iksan), which manufactured skiing gloves back in 1989. Most of the laborers working with this company were young women in their mid and late teens or early 20’s. Here they worked in order to finance their education and support the livelihood of their families. They are led to work in order to take responsibility for the livelihood of their family and continue their school. Eventually, they were put into a situation which led them to form a labor union to reform the working conditions of the factory and solve other problems therein one by one. During the course of these events, the company suddenly closed down and its laborers lost their jobs overnight. The laborers then occupied the factory and formed a protest demanding that the company resume its normal operation. In addition, four female laborers made trip to Japan to stage a protest, where the head office of the company was based in. Their protest, in solidarity with Korean-Japanese residents and Japanese workers they met in Japan, lasted for 100 days. The meetings between young Korean female laborers and Japanese laborers, and the Korean labor movement and the Japanese labor movement have continued until now ever since 1989. less