Struggling for the right to struggle: Cultural workers’ labour rights and unions

Abstract

This paper explores how writers in the South Korean broadcasting industry have collectively struggled against their precarious working conditions and faced distinctive difficulties in taking their collective actions, including unionization. Based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 23 research participants, this paper examines why and how these South Korean writers have established various forms of collective worker organization: from a professional association to informal grassroots communities, to a women-only trade union, to two unions of media workers who are freelance or on contract. I argue that the activism of these writers reflects the intersection of different identities, ranging from women to freelancers to cultural workers and that their activism promotes the idea that working creatively, autonomously and equitably should be recognized as a basic labour right.