Union wants foreign language teachers to know their rights

She broke her foot, and still had to go to work. While her students were busy taking a test, she had the audacity to sit down, just to take pressure off her broken foot for a moment. Her boss was watching over CCTV, and came in to berate her for this infraction in front of the class.

The teacher, who wished to be identified only as Day, said this experience pushed her to take action.

She joined the Native Teachers’ Branch of the Korean General Labor Union (KGLU), which is affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).

Originally named “Native English Teachers’ Branch” in 2024, the word “English” was removed as the organization grew.

“Now that we’ve grown, we have native teachers of other languages, such as Chinese and Japanese, that face the issues we face,” said Day, who is now chair of the Seoul branch. “We changed the name to reflect that diversity and to be more welcoming to those teachers who need assistance and aid.”

She also added that some of the members are Korean nationals, and some aren’t even currently teachers. This includes those who are studying for further teaching qualifications so they can get better jobs in the industry, as well as former workers who were pushed out due to pregnancy or marriage.

The union activities of foreign language teachers across the country are organized around two main branches, headquartered in Seoul and Busan.

The Busan branch, named Foreign Language Teachers’ Union, oversees Busan, Daegu, Ulsan, the Gyeongsang provinces as well as the southwestern Jeolla provinces, Gwangju and Jeju Island.

The members of the union branches have been active in their communities, participating in labor rallies and other demonstrations. They have been openly advocating for the introduction of an anti-discrimination law, a contentious topic in Korea that has been proposed many times over the decades, but keeps failing due to resistance.

The union does much more than march and give speeches, however. A core of their activities is members’ education, strengthening foreign teachers’ awareness of their own rights.

“We do a lot of education, such as what exactly are your labor rights,” Day said. “A lot of people don’t know their rights, even if they’ve been in Korea a while. The labor law is updated regularly, and translations of the law aren’t readily available. That is the kind of thing we regularly do.”

They also help with how to negotiate with employers.

“The culture around talking to your boss is different. Especially for new English teachers, they don’t necessarily know the most effective way to go about negotiating,” Day said. “They’ll take a direct approach, but in Korea that can be seen as adversarial, so we’re helping them be informed and negotiate well for themselves.”

She added that they also spread this information among Koreans, who don’t have to deal with issues like immigration and letters of release.

“When Koreans find out about these additional issues, they’re very interested and concerned,” she said.

Another way the union helps its members is through legal help. Teachers struggling with legal issues at work can come to them to learn how to file a complaint.

Foreign teachers affiliated with the union admit there are fears about employer retaliation.

“Employers get weird about who is in the union,” Day said. “We’ve seen some discrimination and retaliation. It’s definitely something to worry about. We’re still a small union, so if they fire one union member, there’s a dozen more, hundreds more English teachers out there who won’t join the union, who won’t raise these complaints. We like our schools. We like our students. But we would like to have the protections of full-time workers.”

Another common criticism lobbed at the members is that political activities are illegal for foreign residents of Korea. However, while immigration law does ban foreign residents from engaging in political activity, it permits it in certain cases.

“No foreigner sojourning in the Republic of Korea shall engage in any political activity with the exception of cases provided for by this Act or other Acts,” the law reads.

According to the union members, foreign nationals have the right to attend and join labor unions, as upheld by multiple Supreme Court and Constitutional Court rulings. This includes a Supreme Court ruling of May 22, 1998, and Article 81 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act.

Day emphasized that the union makes sure to follow the law by refraining from endorsing political candidates or participating in their campaigns. She added that this also meant not attending impeachment rallies against former President Yoon Suk Yeol last year.

“As a whole, we do not go to candidate-specific rallies,” she said. “We’ll give evidence. We’ll give papers and talk to candidates, but we won’t endorse a candidate.”

Still, foreign unionists often face attitudes that they are not really members of Korean society and are instead just visitors here. But the chairperson of Chungcheong Regional Branch, who gave his name as Austin, disagrees.

“A lot of our members have been here for over a decade, and many have built families and put down roots. We’re not visitors. We are members of Korean society. We attend the local festivals. We mourn alongside Koreans when workers die at work. We also are directly affected by the upholding or violations of labor laws. So we’re going to continue organizing, speaking up and making sure our voices are heard,” he said.

“The bosses and hagwon (private supplemental academy) owners are organized and in association. They recently petitioned Seoul City Hall to abolish the mandatory end times of hagwons in the city. There has been no representation for the workers for over 20 years now. That time has ended.”

Austin said the Chungcheong Regional Branch, a sub-branch of the Seoul Branch, is allied with the Chungnam Workers’ Rights Center, which can help teachers find legal representation.

The Seoul branch is currently seeking equivalent routes and options in Seoul, Gangwon and Gyeonggi provinces. However, many nonprofit legal aid organizations are facing funding cuts.

Foreign language teachers are not the first migrant workers to unionize in Korea. They also work closely with the Migrants’ Trade Union, founded in 2005, also under the KCTU. Although hagwon teachers face very different conditions to factory workers, the members of the Native Teachers’ Branch stressed the need for labor rights across all of society, including for Koreans.

“When we see the abuse and deaths of our fellow teachers and immigrants, our hearts break and we cannot sit still. We may be immigrants but we are humans too. The suffering and deaths of immigrant workers is not something that happens at only one workplace,” Day said during a rally of about 200 immigrant workers in downtown Seoul on April 26. “We will not say I am sorry for being sick. It is not a crime to be sick. We will not accept abuse, suffering, trauma and death as the price of employment in Korea.”

The Seoul branch will have its “Know Your Rights and Meet the Union” seminar in Suwon May 23, a “Know Your Rights and Anti-Discrimination Legislation” in Seoul June 27, an “Anti-Discrimination Legislation and the Letter of Release” in Siheung July 18, and “Know Your Rights and Letter of Release” in Seoul Aug. 29.

The Chungcheong branch has seminars planned monthly across several cities, intended to share information about the basic labor rights of workers in Korea, the letter of release, enacting an anti-discrimination law and the minimum wage. These seminars will be held for Cheonan-Asan on May 9, Daejeon on June 20, Sejong on July 25, Seosan-Dangjin-Taean on Aug. 22 and Cheongju-Chungju Sept. 19. All are listed at linktr.ee/KGLUNativeTeachersCC.

The seminars are free and legal for all visa types to attend.

Visit u/kglunativeteachers_seoulbranch on Instagram for more information about the Seoul Branch of the KGLU Native Teachers’ Union covering Seoul, Gyeonggi and Gangwon, u/nativeteacherunionchungcheong for the Chungcheong provinces, and u/kglu_fle for the Busan Foreign Language Education Branch.