Intractable – volume 2

South Korea, at the turn of the 2000s. In an economic and social environment hard hit by the fallout from the financial crisis in Asia, we find Gu Go-shin, union activist and founder of a small consulting agency for the defense of workers, and Lee Soo-in, a promising young retail executive from the ranks of the army. Since their paths crossed, the two men have come to know and appreciate each other: the detestable social practices of Lee's new employer, a powerful French group recently established in Korea, have awakened their vigilante instincts. of Go-shin, Soo-in is now fighting for the creation of a union branch in the company. Although the working conditions are deteriorating there day after day, the employees are initially reluctant to this idea. But the fate of an employee, saved in extremis from unfair dismissal, changes everything: traumatizing, the episode has the effect of an electric shock on the last undecided... This second volume continues the transposition into fiction of the conflictual – and ultimately failed – establishment of Carrefour in Korea. This opus shows how employees can unite against the power of multinationals, and in particular how difficult this collective organization can be when faced with a boss who has become a master in the technique of "divide and conquer". Remarkable mastery and brilliance, Choi Kyu-sok continues to depict with finesse the workings of the system specific to large companies and to paint a complex and nuanced portrait of contemporary Korean society, highlighting, more particularly in this volume, the essential role of Korean trade unionism. Translated from Korean by Kette Amoruso How can employees organize themselves to collectively resist the practices of multinationals?