Koreatown's workers find a voice.

• Author: Thornburg, Gina
• Position: Los Angeles, CA, restaurant boycott; labor law non-enforcement - On The Line - Brief Article

Los Angeles

There may be more people of Korean descent in Los Angeles than in any city this side of Seoul. Thousands of people in what is called Koreatown work in abominable conditions. The restaurants in this downtown neighborhood are mostly owned by Koreans, who often hire recent immigrants.

Koreatown's more than 2,000 waitresses, cooks, dishwashers, meatcutters, and busboys typically earn $600 a month for nine-to twelve-hour work days, six days a week--less than half the current hourly minimum wage of $5.75. Workers-compensation insurance or health benefits are rarities. Injuries are commonplace. So are slippery floors, poor ventilation, and employers who verbally abuse and occasionally batter their employees.

In response, a group called Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates has called for a boycott of two of the most popular Korean restaurants in Los Angeles, Cho Sun Galbi and So Gong Dong Soon Tofu Restaurant. The restaurant owners declined to comment.

"The workers don't have any kind of voice," says Paul Lee, an organizer with the six-year-old group. "There's a vacuum of nonenforcement of labor laws. Within this vacuum, you're going to have employers that try to get away with as much as they can."

In such enclave economies as Koreatown, language and cultural barriers prevent employees from knowing their basic labor rights.

"Sometimes I feel I could compare it to being like a slave," says Kathy Chen. For two years in Koreatown restaurants, Chen toiled long hours as a waitress for pay below minimum wage. Fired several months ago after a disagreement with her employer, she sought assistance from the Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates. The...