Increase of Unionization Rate under Multiple Unions System

According to 『Unionization in Korea 2011』 released by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, workers eligible to join a trade union increased by 286,000 (1.7%) while trade union membership increased by 77,000 (4.7%), pushing the unionization rate up by 0.3%. This increase in trade union membership was significantly larger in 2011 than in 2010 (3,000). The number of trade union members totaled 1.72 million in 2011 while the unionization rate reached 10.1%.

The unionization rate reached its highest point in 1989 (19.8%) and since then steadily declined. The unionization rate was around 12% between 1997 and 2001, approximately 11% from 2002 to 2003, around10% in 2004 and around 9.8% in 2010. In 2011, the unionization rate began to increase again, reaching 10%. This suggests that the introduction of the multiple unions system has affected the unionization rate and caused an increase in trade union membership.

[Figure 1] Unionization Rate & Trade Union Membership

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) has the largest membership (768,953), constituting 44.7% of all trade union members, followed by the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) with a total of 562,310 members (32.7%) in addition to 366,746 (21.3%) unaffiliated members. In 2011, the FKTU membership increased by 40,000 over the previous year, whereas KCTU membership fell by 18,000. The number of workers unaffiliated with trade unions increased by 32,000 (9.7%).

[Table 1] Membership in Major Umbrella Unions

The FKTU has the highest number of affiliated trade unions with a total of 2,362 (46.1%), followed by unaffiliated unions with 2,256 (44.1%), the KCTU with 415 (8.1%) and the KLUC with 87 trade unions (1.7%).

[Table 2] Number of Trade Unions Affiliated with Umbrella Unions

Specifically, the number of union members in the private sector increased by 81,000 between 2010 (1.37 million) and 2011 (1.45 million) pushing the unionization rate up to 8.9% from 8.6%. As for the public sector, the unionization rate among school teachers declined 0.1% due to a decrease in membership in the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU), which declined from 66,000 to 63,000. Membership in the Korean Government Employees Union (KGEU) also declined by 2,000 (189 thousand → 187 thousand) but, influenced by a more rapid decline in the number of public servants eligible to join a trade union, the unionization rate increased from 58.0% to 59.0%.

[Figure 2] Unionization Rate by Sector

Trade unions with less than 50 members (2,627) comprise 51.3% of all trade unions in Korea, but their total membership is only 43,317 (2.5%). Meanwhile, 3.9% of trade unions have more than 1,000 members with a total membership of 1,229,963 (71.5%).

[Table 3] Trade Union Membership by Size (Unit: Persons)

By type, the number of industrial (or regional) union members increased by 75,195 to 963,632. The proportion of union members affiliated with non-enterprise unions was 56.0%. For the FKTU, enterprise-level union members comprised 52.8% (405,861) of its total membership, whereas for the KCTU, industrial(or regional) union members comprised 82.7% (464,892) of its total.

[Table 4] Trade Union Membership by Union Type (Unit: Persons)