The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness (13 page)

Right then, I was hit with a sense of confusion. Could it be that the lone room has now become a distant island that I can no longer go near?

As I sat there in this unfamiliar restaurant, eating an unfamiliar meal and listening to unfamiliar talk from unfamiliar people, I thought that I should leave now. But this is not something I should run from. I should not regard my life inside that lone room as something any different.

Ever since the union was formed, the management is left without a single peaceful day. They promise that they’ll do anything if the members break with the union
. Then the next minute they threaten that they will not leave the members alone if they continue with union activities. They offer Yu Chae-ok a promotion to chief of production if she steps down as union leader. They also offer to hand over a company snack stall to Yu Chae-ok for her to manage.

We turn to Yu Chae-ok all at once.

Now even Cousin and I are anxious that Yu Chae-ok might change her mind. Yu Chae-ok. Despite the slander and verbal assault, despite all the conciliatory offers, she receives an official stamp of registration from City Hall for the labor union’s Dongnam Electronics chapter. Now the management criticizes her as a blind pursuer of powerful positions and demands that she step down as union leader to make way for the head of production or chief of production. The union requests the formation of a labor-management joint committee, but the management refuses. Foreman paces the production line with his hands folded behind his back.

“So the two of you also joined the union, I hear?” he asks. Foreman sounds cold as he gives out orders to hurry on with our work. “You people don’t know your place in the world,” he spits out.

Then one day, the union launches a campaign to enhance production quality and quantity. Yu Chae-ok gives out ribbons that read
Production Enhancement
to all the union members and makes everyone wear them on their chests. Cousin gets her cheek slapped by the head of administration for wearing the ribbon on her chest.

“Why did he hit me?” Cousin gazes blankly at the administration head’s back as she rubs her assaulted cheek. All through the day, people wearing ribbons that read
Production Enhancement
get insulted or kicked. Scared of getting hit, I quickly take off the ribbon and hold it in my hand. The union leaders said that taking off the ribbon meant defeat and urged the members to keep the ribbons on their chests, but the following day the union leaders are the only people still wearing the ribbons. They might have taken off the ribbons, too, but
they are no longer individuals. Persecution always brings them together, the rule goes. Because if they don’t stay together, they feel insecure.

Then it is time for the civil defense drill. The head of production holds in his hand a list of union members who were dozing off during the drill. He urges them to hand in their resignations.

Resign? For dozing off during a civil defense drill? When the members do not comply, the management transfers them to different divisions to split them up.

Then there is news of a union fee of 300 won. This causes yet another ruckus. The union requests that the company management deduct the fee directly from the workers’ wages but the request is turned down. On payday, the union leaders try to collect the fees on the spot but fail, due to interference from management. In the end, a fight breaks out between Yu Chae-ok and other union leaders trying to collect the fees and the company’s management staff. The following day, one of the management staff is lying in a hospital bed. The head of administration again tries to persuade Yu Chae-ok to leave the union. When Yu Chae-ok refuses, the administration head starts to shout.

“In that case, as of now, you are fired.”

An argument breaks out between the head of administration and Yu Chae-ok, the latter protesting that it’s unjust, which again starts a fight between the management and the union members, grabbing one another by their collars. The head of administration, who was seized by the collar during the whole ruckus, checks himself into a hospital room, claiming that he was assaulted by Yu Chae-ok and the union members. Now the managing director steps forward. He offers that if Yu Chae-ok leaves the union, he will cancel her dismissal and promote her to a managerial position. When Yu Chae-ok declines, the management announces the dismissal of union chief Yu Chae-ok and some fifty union members, citing the management staff lying on their hospital beds alongside the head of administration

I write a letter to Chang. I write
, Today the management halted production and handed out applications for a new union, insisting that a management-friendly union is needed. Only a few people filled it out, though. Those who didn’t were scolded. They told us we’re going to regret this. They said that members in the new union will get a raise of 100 won in their daily wage. I describe Yu Chae-ok in detail to Chang. About how brave she is, how reliable. She is as reliable and trustworthy to me as Oldest Brother, I write. But I think she’s been defeated by the management, I write.

Even without Yu Chae-ok, however, the union forms a Countermeasure Committee for the Dongnam Electronics Chapter of the Korea Metal Workers Federation, kicking off with a general meeting attended by various notable figures. A letter of appeal is sent out to various circles. The letter calls for the following actions.

1.
Immediately allow the union chief, who has been unfairly dismissed, to return to her job.

2.
Bring the dismissed union members back to work and stop the persecution of rightful union activity.

3.
Return all workers who have been transferred for participating in union activity to their original positions.

4.
The management should immediately accept the labor union and guarantee union protection for all members.

Miss Lee comes to see us again to get our signature. The petition, which almost every employee in the production division has signed, calls for a 50 percent raise in wages. For fundraising for dismissed workers. For putting an end to the oppression of workers. For compensation for working on legal holidays and annual leave. For ending discrimination between administration staff and factory workers. After submitting the petition to the management, the workers collectively refuse to work overtime in protest. As the issue begins to create a stir outside the company, the management, which has never accepted the union up to this point
, finally agrees at the joint labor-management conference to raise the minimum daily wage to 830 won. They agree to permit a labor union signboard to be hung at the company; to pay a 200 percent bonus within the year; to provide an office for the union staffed with two full-time workers; and to follow the pending decision by the National Labor Relations Commission regarding the dismissed union chief’s return.

However, Cousin and I do not get to see Yu Chae-ok again. She does not return to work. On the same bulletin where the list of dismissed workers was announced, a new notice is posted, inviting applicants to special high school classes for industrial workers. It says interested workers should pick up forms from the administration office, fill them out, and hand them in to the administration staff at their respective division. Cousin goes to pick up the forms for me from administration. Oldest Brother tells Cousin she should send in her application as well. Cousin says she does not want to.

“How come?”

Cousin says nothing.

“How come you don’t want to?”

“How can I go back to school at this age?”

“How old is that?”

“Nineteen.”

“That’s not so old.”

“That is old. All my friends are graduating.” Oldest Brother looks at Cousin without saying anything. Frightened of Brother’s gaze, Cousin loses her nerve.

“You mean you want to be a factory worker all your life?” Cousin shuts her mouth tight. “You like people calling you factory girl?”

Cousin shuts her mouth even tighter.

“You can’t get out of that life if you don’t go to school.”

Still Cousin’s tightly shut mouth does not open.

“Is that what you want?” Cousin bends her head low. “Is it?”

“Well, everyone else lives that way!” was Cousin’s response to Oldest Brother’s question.

“Everyone? Who? You might live that way, but everyone
else goes to high school and goes to college, pursuing the things that they want to do.”

As Oldest Brother presses on, Cousin is now on the brink of crying. Yet Oldest Brother does not relent.

“So you mean to tell me you’re going keep living here like this forever, is that it?”

“What do you mean forever? I’m going to save up to buy a camera, and get married, too.”

Oldest Brother softens his tone and lets out a little laugh. “What do you want a camera for?”

I answer, after watching the two of them speak. “She wants to be a photographer.”

Oldest Brother says, “Some grand dream,” then adds, sounding apologetic yet firm, “It’s the same with marriage. If you work at a factory, you can only find someone on that level. To live a decent life in this country, the first thing you need is schooling.”

When Cousin still does not say that she will go back to school, Oldest Brother raises his voice again.

“Then why move all the way out here in the first place? Why not just go work at a factory near home? If you don’t plan on going to school, pack your things and go back home.” Cousin turns all sullen, but left without a choice, she picks up an application form form.

She turns to me. “Why are
you
going to school?”

I go blank at Cousin’s question. I have simply thought that is what one has to do. Cousin is the first person to ask why that is. Unable to answer why I’m going to school, I say to Cousin that it would be nice if we could attend school together. “Besides, if we get admitted, the company is going to pay the tuition.”

Cousin snorts. “You think the company is trying to do us a favor? They’re doing it for tax benefits. And if we go to school, we won’t be able to work overtime. Actually, we’ll have to leave work an hour earlier than regular hours and the company is of
course going to cut an hour’s pay from our daily wage. So when will I ever save up enough money for a camera?”

After filling out her application only at Oldest Brother’s insistence, Cousin gets even more worked up about getting in. They’re admitting fifteen students but 160 people have applied. Another notice is posted, that the selection will be made on the basis of the applicants’ work history at the factory and a separate test. The test will be supervised by the union leader.

I still can’t figure it out. How did the management ever get the idea to delegate the student selection process for the special industrial workers’ class to the union? I wonder if it was a conciliatory gesture to make up for their adamant opposition to letting Yu Chae-ok back to her job.

Despite Cousin’s earlier reluctance, when we are notified of the large number of applicants and that work history will be a major factor in the selection, followed by the announcement of the test date, Cousin seems anxious.

“What are we going to do? We’ve been working for less than six months now.”

“Doing well on the test will help.”

Cousin turns glum. Saying that she doesn’t think she can, Cousin asks again, “What are we going to do?”

It’s not like I have an answer. I said we should do well on the test—but we can’t even study for it. We don’t have the books.

“What are we going to do if we fail?”

“We won’t fail.”

“But it’s been three years since I graduated middle school. It’s different for me!”

I try to calm her anxiety. “Other people graduated five, six years ago. We’re two of the youngest applicants. They’re all twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, even.”

Still not convinced, Cousin mumbles
, “But it’ll be so embarrassing if we fail.” Then, after thinking awhile, she suggests that we write a letter.

“To whom?”

“To the union chief!”

Union chief? In return for getting rid of Yu Chae-ok, the management set up a union office on the roof next to the cafeteria and the newly elected union leader now works there full-time.