The Youth Community Union (YCU), a labor union for young people who are earning a living through employment such as part-time work, is scheduled to launch next month. Any person between the ages 15 to 40 are eligible to join, although the union reportedly plans to first focus its activities on those making a living through part-time work. In the case of this union, those who are directly involved are stepping up to improve the situation in which the labor rights of part-time workers have been ignored. We hope that by securing a place in the labor movement, the union can spread to youth the idea that you yourself must step forward and claim your rights.

Youth, busy at work doing part-time jobs or temporary employment, are a typical example of a susceptible group ignored in a blind spot in the labor market, along with female irregular workers and the elderly. Part-time workers in their teens to 30s alone are estimated to number over 2 million, but society does not view their problems as serious. In fact, it is easy to regard them as individuals unable to obtain proper employment because they have done a poor job developing as individuals. Moreover, the youth unemployment policies put forward by the government have mostly been unrealistic, such as stopgap measures like internships and support for young people to go abroad. The same goes for the labor unions, who are not actively extending a hand to these individuals.

Since they have not been recipients of social interest, the working conditions of these part-time workers are terrible. Convenience stores and restaurants that do not guarantee a minimum wage can be found everywhere. Also widespread is the idea that the young employees can be fired at anytime without recourse. There are also a number of youth such as hagwon teachers and tutors who, while enjoying slightly better conditions, are caught up in employment insecurity. Since most are working under employers who are petty self-employed, it has been difficult for them to respond by forming a union on their own. If they had not chosen to respond through a union that surpasses the boundaries of companies to transcend individual work places, their response would have no teeth. This is why we are hanging our hopes on an organization like the Youth Community Union.

The activity goals of this type of organization, however, should not center on just temporary improvements to the situation of part-time workers. They also need to work to break the idea that part-time work is both separate from and inferior to regular and irrgular work. If they fail to do so, the number of those who are unable to pull themselves out of a life of part-time work will not decrease. Another needed change is in the mindset of the government, corporations and labor. They need to recognize the reality that part-time work is not, as it was previously, something students do for a short period of time to earn spending money, but rather an ordinary form of labor. When predicated upon such a realistic understanding, it is possible to come up with proper measures.

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