COMMUNITY 19FRIDAY JULY 17, 2009

By Dann Gaymer

DAEGU — Ferdinand M.Mismanos sits behind his deskin the Asian Migrant Workers’Interpretation & CouncilCentre’s small downtown office,flanked by Filipino, Indonesianand Vietnamese flags hangingon the walls. A copy of GeorgeOrwell’s “Animal Farm” ratheraptly sits upon his desk.

Over the past few months themigrant workers’ center herehas been leading the fight forworkers’ rights. Led by KuJeung-dong and Mismanos,they deal with a whole cata-logue of issues including physi-cal violence, medical bills, un-paid salary and unemploy-ment.

The council is different fromother groups because they haveno interest in merely talkingabout the problems facing mi-grant workers, rather they takeaction against these issues in aneffort to elicit real, life changingeffects.

Originally hailing from thecity of Batangas in thePhilippines, Mismanos came toKorea in 2005 to work at a plas-tic molding factory. He ex-plained how the organizationstarted through the Catholicchurch and had been primarilycharged with providing adviceand recreational activities.

Yet the church’s services werenot open to workers of otherfaiths and furthermoreMismanos felt their methodswere not effective enough.

“When people came to theCatholic Center they were givenonly advice. They could only behelped with worship. That’s notenough, I want action,” he said.

The real turning point wasthe recent break with thechurch.

Mismanos also explained whyaction was needed and the kindof issues migrant workers face.“Workers come here having onlystudied Korean for two weeks,which isn’t enough because itcauses so many misunderstand-ings.

“My supervisor asked one of

my coworkers to give him thepliers but he misheard and gavehim a wrench. So my supervisorthrew the wrench at the back ofhis head.”

Mismanos then went on tostress the health and safety con-cerns he has for his fellow mi-grants.

“You’ve heard of a 3-D work-er? Well now it’s 4-D, ‘dirty, dan-gerous, difficult and dead’. Lastyear we dealt with two cases ofFilipinos dying as a result oftheir jobs. They didn’t even diefrom accidents, instead fromheart attacks caused by exhaus-tion.”

Meanwhile across town, KuJeung-dong sits behind thewheel of his car, on his way backto the office to meet someclients. The grandson of a highranking Catholic priest and for-merly a Seoul-based LG employ-ee, Ku shifted his specializationfrom corporate to labor law afterwitnessing the plight of migrantworkers. Since moving to theCouncil’s new office four monthsago, he has dealt with over 100migrant worker cases, and 800before at their previous CatholicCentre office.

The majority of cases con-cern workers being owedwages by unscrupulous em-ployers.

Even when workers are un-der contract this does not pre-vent blatant breaches of laborlaw; sometimes the employer isunaware that they are break-ing the rules but more fre-quently they are banking onthe migrant employee being ig-norant of the country’s lawsand having no channel of com-plaint. As a consequence, Kuwins almost every case hebrings to the labor office. Oftenbefore he even brings the caseto court, a settlement is agreedupon because there is no de-bate that the employer was inthe wrong.

Despite the frequency inwhich employers are in thewrong, it is rare for an employerto face more than a financialpenalty. Critics say the lack ofquantifiable measures is

enough to persuade many em-ployers to breach labor laws.

When asked what they weretrying to achieve, Ku said “Mostoften we just trying to get work-ers the money they are owed.”

Back at the Council’s office,Ku meets four Bangladeshimen from Dhaka. Toufikul,Shafiqul, Ismail and Sorife allwork at the same chemicalplant and all want to leave be-cause of an incident that oc-curred between them and theiremployer. Their case is typicalof the plight of migrant work-ers in Korea: There was an in-cident of physical violence com-mitted against them, the sec-ond most common issue Kudeals with.

Toufikul carefully explainedthe situation: “I told my boss Iwas taking Labor Day off be-cause it was a national holiday;he said it wasn’t up to me. I in-sisted, so he threw a chair atme, hitting my friend and I.”

Ku listens to their problems,clarifies it with them and ex-plains that they need a med-ical certificate from a hospitalas proof of the assault. Withthis they will have hard evi-dence to bring a case, whichwill most likely be another nocontest.

The first order of businesswould usually be to ring the em-ployer and negotiate, but forfear of further reprisals againstToufikul and his friends, Ku de-cides to go straight to the courtsin order to get the men releasedfrom their contract and arrangea court hearing as soon as possi-ble so they can get compensat-ed.

During the interview withExpat Living, Ku repeatedly re-ferred to cases such as these ashuman rights violations. “Thereare laws to protect the workersbut they aren’t informed of theirlegal, financial or contractualrights. No one in the factory willhelp them and no other labor at-torneys will work for them, sothey can’t communicate theirproblems.

“They’re trapped. (Migrantworkers) support the Korean

economy on the bottom side,working 12-13 hour shifts. Yetthey’re denied even the most ba-sic rights, instead being treatedlike animals or robots. That iswhere it becomes a humanrights issue,” said Ku.

An organization for migrantsin Korea is nothing unique, withgroups existing all over thecountry, including in towns suchas Gumi, as well as the big in-dustrial cities of Ulsan andPohang. Yet for the most partthese groups only facilitaterecreational activities. Theymostly lack the capability toelicit tangible progress.

The Daegu organization hasconsequently emerged as thebig brother amongst the groupsin smaller towns and cities,since it can achieve progressthat directly affects the lives ofmigrant workers.

The potency of the DaeguMigrant Council comes down tothe combination of a Koreanspeaking lawyer, Ku, coupledwith a respected and trustedleader within the migrant com-munity, Ferdinand, with thehelp of a group of dedicated vol-unteers including Ku’s Filipinowife, amongst others. What re-sults is a system that works,comprised of people who careand are willing to listen andwho in turn can work the sys-tem and take action to solve theissues at hand, whether theyare of financial, medical or phys-ical in nature.

Mismanos and Ku said theyhope their work will be the cor-nerstone for a far-reaching orga-nization in the not too distantfuture. They hope that, with thehelp of the various embassies,the smaller migrant groupsaround the country could jointogether as umbrella organiza-tions, which would ultimatelybe a boon for migrant workers inKorea.

To comment, e-mial matt-lamers@heraldm.com. To con-tact the author, e-mail dan-ngaymer@hotmail.co.uk —Ed.

Expat Living is a section dedicated to the daily living of expatriates. It is printed on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. To share stories about your life abroad, send stories or story ideas to Matthew Lamers at mattlamers@heraldm.com Submissions may be edited for length or clarity.

By Matthew Lamers

Twice a month Paul Tynanand Seth Yoder would pick upSay-won and Say-me, twochildren from an orphanage,and take them anywherethey wanted to go that day.

Sometimes they went tothe park or to the movies.Often they would go out fordinner, capping the day offwith ice cream cones.

Starting in January, Tynanand Yoder, high schoolEnglish instructors, wouldpick up the children fromDong Myeong Welfare Centeron the second and fourthSunday of every month. Theysaid they built up a good rela-tionship with the childrenand enjoyed their visit to theorphanage.

About a month ago Tynansaid he and Yoder decided tobuy soccer jerseys for Say-wonand Say-me. “But as soon as Ithought about that, I realizedI should be able to organizemore than just a (couple) soc-cer jerseys. I thought, why notask my friends if they wouldlike to buy a soccer jersey forthe children who want one,”Tynan said.

Yoder wanted to do more.“We thought what we did wasgreat, but we thought it wasrestricted. Every week we goto the orphanage and thereare dozens of kids runningaround, so we wanted to geteveryone collectively in-volved.”

Tynan and Yoder talked itover and then asked theirfriend Park Seong-ju to helpwith the organization. Parkoriginally put them in contactwith the orphanage.

The orphanage thought itwas a great idea, saying theywould love it if the two Englishteachers could get sponsorshipfor 27 soccer jerseys for the or-phanage’s soccer team.

Tynan immediately got hissoccer team, Seoul Celtic, in-volved because they had oftenexpressed a desire to do char-ity work. The chairman ofSeoul Celtic, Barry Eustace,loved the idea, and from therea bank account was set upand money started pouringin. Eustace even said Celticwould foot the entire bill forthe jerseys so all the cashraised could go to the orphan-age and food on the day of thepresentation.

“This has always been asimple idea: Get some money,buy some soccer jerseys,”Tynan said.

The jerseys will be present-ed on July 18 to the childrenand a check given to the or-phanage. In all, over 1 millionwon will be donated throughthe jerseys, cash andSaturday’s party.

“The really good thing isthat Seoul Celtic are going tomake this a permanent rela-tionship with the orphanage.And the best thing about thisis that other teams are ex-pressing interest in doing thesame thing,” said Tynan.

Celtic plan to set up acoaching program wherebytwo members go to the or-phanage each week to coachtheir soccer team for a fewhours.

Seoul Celtic play in theSeoul Sunday FootballLeague (www.ssflkorea.com),which consists of 15 teamsand around 300 players. It isthe country’s biggest expatsports league.

Beginning at around 4 p.m.Saturday, lunch will be pro-vided and there will be a

penalty shootout competition.“I expect a small group repre-senting Seoul Celtic andsmall number of other for-eigners who have donated toattend. The important aspect,in my opinion, is that SeoulCeltic soccer club are eager tocontinue giving to the welfarecenter. Other soccer clubs,and foreigner groups can seethis, and get involved in simi-lar initiatives,” said the 27-year-old.

The Dong Myeong WelfareCenter is responsible for 79children: 11 preschool, 26 ele-mentary, 21 junior high, 18high school, and 3 universitystudents.

Tynan and Yoder said theyhave an even bigger goal.Many expats, they said, re-main outsiders in their com-munities, separated by lan-guage and culture. They wantto spur more expats into do-ing volunteer work.

“We risk falling into thetrap of thinking, ‘well, it isnot my country, so what can Ido?’ Moreover, because manyof the expats here are teach-ers, there is a tendency toview our positions as teachersas sufficient community in-volvement. In my opinion,that should not be the case,”said Tynan.

“The teachers here are paidwell and enjoy a comfortablelife. Sometimes, I have gottenthe sense that many are herefor the paycheck alone. Thesefeelings are shared by manyof my friends. I feel that thistype of attitude can cause asense of abdicated responsi-bility among expats, and maycause resentment within theKorean community. Smallbridges like this one can bebuilt. They are needed toshow people an example.They are needed to show thatif you live in a country it isnot enough to take your pay-check and turn a blind eye tothe potential opportunities tolend some support.”

Tynan said he knows howeasy it is to fall into a passivelifestyle with regards to thecommunity that surroundshim. It wasn’t until this yearthat he first began his charitywork and said it is never toolate to start, no matter longyou have been in Korea, orwhether or not you have donework for charity in the past.

“No longer do I think it isalright that I take a passiverole in watching others volun-teer their time with childrenin need, so whatever countryI live in, from now on I am de-termined to get involved.”

Yoder explained how socceris being used to bridge cul-tures. “With soccer, there isno communication barrier.Because of the language bar-rier we can’t always expressourselves and if we use socceras our medium of expression,it’s a way for us to expresswhat we like together withthe kids,” Yoder said.

Something else thatspurred the teachers into ac-tion was what Tynan de-scribed as less-than-positiveattitudes among the foreignworkforce combined with oc-casional passive aggressive-ness directed toward foreignworkers here.

“By showing a smallamount of initiative, we cancreate meaningful connec-tions with the foreign com-munity and the Korean com-munity,” said Tynan, ateacher at Sun Jung HighSchool.

(mattlamers@heraldm.com)

Migrant workersWhen going to work is life or death

Club donatesjerseys, cashto orphanage

Ferdinand M. Mismanos, leader of a mi-grant workers’ rights group in Daegu,holds a sign. Dann Gaymer

Over the past fewmonths the mi-grant workers’centre here hasbeen leading thefight for workers’rights.Led by KuJeung-dong andMismanos,theydeal with a wholecatalogue of is-sues includingphysical violence,medical bills,un-paid salary andunemployment.