With Or Without Class: a Comparative Study of Union-Worker Cooperative Relations in the U.S
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University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 1-1-2016 With or Without Class: A Comparative Study of Union-Worker Cooperative Relations in the U.S. and South Korea Minsun Ji University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the International and Area Studies Commons, and the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Ji, Minsun, "With or Without Class: A Comparative Study of Union-Worker Cooperative Relations in the U.S. and South Korea" (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1230. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1230 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. With or Without Class: A Comparative Study of Union-Worker Cooperative Relations in the U.S. and South Korea ____________ A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies University of Denver ____________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy ____________ by Minsun Ji November 2016 Advisor: Dr. George DeMartino Author: Minsun Ji Title: With or Without Class: A Comparative Study of Union-Worker Cooperative Relations in the U.S. and South Korea Advisor: Dr. George DeMartino Degree Date: November 2016 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines to what extent union-cooperative partnerships in the U.S. and S. Korea might revitalize labor movements and to what extent class-based narratives (or their absence) shape labor movements. Exploring competing labor ontologies, the dissertation analyzes how variants of traditional Marxism and poststructural thinking shape labor campaigns. Through a historical review of union and worker coop activism, and modern case studies of union-coop partnerships among taxi drivers and bus drivers, the dissertation analyzes the consequences of organizing “with” and “without” class narratives. These labor histories and case studies lend support to the poststructural claim that class identity is constructed and contingent, varying by political-cultural context. However, these case studies undermine the poststructural critique that traditional notions of “class” are unimaginative and disempowering of diverse organizing projects that do not speak of “class.” Countering such arguments, this dissertation provides evidence that in labor organizing, class narratives remain powerful and necessary. Without talk of class in Denver, unionized cooperative taxi drivers constricted their field of action to maximizing individual economic gains through business ownership. The results of their activism were therefore limited. In these efforts, talk of class remains a generative force, capable of uniting workers, challenging regimes, and crafting alternative economies. Class narratives remain a necessary component in the conceptual toolbox of those committed to transformation in their community. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My earliest intellectual and civic inspirations trace to my colleagues during my Korean college days, who I am honored to have worked beside during the Korean student-labor movement of the early 1990s. I continue even now to draw support and inspiration from the lifetime friendships built in those efforts. Thank you, my friends. In Denver, I have been inspired by the immigrant low-wage workers of El Centro Humanitario, who taught me resilience, courage, and commitment to a cause, no matter the obstacles. In completing this dissertation, many taxi and bus drivers, union and coop leaders, and labor activists, both in Korea and the U.S., generously gave their time and insights. Thank you all. For providing me a model of intellectuals with deep and important civic commitments, I thank my dissertation committee members: George DeMartino, Aaron Schneider, and Karin Wedig. In particular, I acknowledge the inspiration of George DeMartino. No professor has ever understood, challenged, or mentored me with the clarity of purpose or care for my growth as George has. I have grown profoundly as a scholar and person due to his mentorship, and I owe this dissertation to his guidance. No words can express my thanks for the support of family during this process. To my departed father, I hope this dissertation would have made you proud. To my mother, brothers, and daughters (Donalyn and Sora), thank you for being patient, loving and supportive. To my husband, Tony, I am honored by your emotional and intellectual support through these long years. I dedicate this work to the inspiration you have provided me in your own tireless work to reach beyond the academy and to bridge theory with practical commitments to improving the real world. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. Introduction 1 Global Neoliberalism and Labor in Crisis 1 Union-Coop Relationships: From Indifference to Common Ground 4 With or Without Class? Differing Approaches to Labor Organizing 7 Theorizing Labor Empowerment: Ontology Matters 11 Different Worlds of Labor Activism: the U.S. and South Korea 19 Class Matters: Preview of the Argument 21 Plan of the Dissertation 26 Chapter 2. Methodology 32 Addressing Bias and Presupposition: Multiple-Method Triangulation 34 Conclusion 40 Chapter 3. Traditional vs. Poststructural Marxism 41 Competing Ontologies: Economic Determinism vs. the Decentered Economy 45 Competing Ontologies: the Nature of “Class” 55 Traditional versus Poststructural Marxism: Practical Consequences of Ontological Orientations 71 Chapter 4. Traditional vs. Poststructural Marxism: Labor Unions, Worker Cooperatives, and the Labor Movement 77 Traditional Marxism on Worker Cooperatives 79 Traditional Marxism on Labor Unions 86 Poststructural Marxism on Worker Cooperatives 94 Poststructural Marxism on Labor Unions 101 Conclusion 104 Chapter 5. “There’s No Class in America”: Postructural U.S. Labor Movement 108 Job Consciousness and Business Unionism 112 The State and Business Unionism 125 Identity Politics and Pluralistic Labor Strategies 132 Conclusion 147 Chapter 6. From Radical to Business Cooperativism: Worker Cooperatives in the U.S. 150 Radical Roots: the Class-Conscious Cooperatives 151 State Action and the Rise of Business Cooperativism: The New Deal Legacy 158 iv Post-war Economic Gains and the Degeneration Thesis 164 ESOPS in the 1970s-1990s 172 Unions and Cooperatives Faces the New Economy: The USW-Mondragon Initative and New Era Windows 180 Conclusion 187 Chapter 7. A Case Study of Denver’s Taxi Driver Union-Coop Relations 189 The Harsh World of Taxi Workers 190 The Uber and Lyft Taxi Driver Solution: Cooperatives without Class Consciousness 193 Union Organizing of Denver’s SuperShuttle Transportation Workers 200 From Union to Worker Cooperative: New Direction in Taxi Driver Organizing 210 A Unionized Worker Cooperative in Practice 217 Conclusion 233 Chapter 8. South Korea’s Class Conscious Labor Movement 235 The Authoritarian State and Labor Antagonism 237 Consequences of State Institutions on Labor Organizing Patterns 251 Labor Movements before Democratization in 1987 255 Labor Movements after Democratization: KCTU and labor Militancy 266 Labor Militancy: Organizing Irregular Workers 275 Conclusion 282 Chapter 9. South Korea’s Worker Cooperative Movement 284 The First Stage of worker cooperative development: 1910-1950 286 The Second stage of worker cooperative Development: 1980s-1990s 290 The Third stage worker cooperative Development: 1997- Present 295 Relations between Third-stage Worker Cooperatives and Labor Unions 308 Conclusion 317 Chapter 10. Case Study of Woojin Bus Workers’ Union- Cooperative in South Korea 319 Privately Owned Korea Bus Companies and Worker Exploitation 322 Worker Takeover at Woojin Bus: The rise of a Worker-Cooperative Solution 328 The Analysis of Woojin: Strong Class Consciousness 329 A Growing Ecology of Bus Driver Cooperatives 347 Conclusion 350 Chapter 11. Conclusion 355 Beyond Class: The Post-structural Political Imagination 355 Organizing with Class: Practical Benefits of a Class-Conscious Approach 359 v Bibliography 368 Appendices 425 Appendix 1. Abbreviation 425 Appendix 2. Questionnaire: The Survey of Taxi Workers in Denver, U.S 427 Appendix 3. Survey Results: Denver’s Taxi Workers (U.S.) 429 Appendix 4. Questionnaire: Survey of Woojin Workers, Korea (in Korean) 432 Appendix 5. Questionnaire: Survey of Woojin Workers, Korea (in English) 434 Appendix 6. Survey Results: Woojin Workers (South Korea) 438 Appendix 7. List of Charts 441 vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Though the post-1970s era of global neoliberalism has seen a withering of labor power across the globe, recent years have witnessed a florescence of union-coop partnerships, including renewed thinking about how unions can use their resources to build the alternative kind of economy many worker cooperatives support, and of how worker coop owners can think politically and in solidarity with union workers in a struggle to humanize the broader economic system. As Hazel Corcoran, the Executive Director of the Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation, stated at a union-coop solidarity conference in 2011, both labor institutions believe in “economic democracy, wealth sharing and putting people before profits.” It is these shared values of union and coop activists that are increasingly moving the two institutions “from indifference to common ground” (Davidson,