North Korea Labor

Striking workers from unions representing 1.7 million members shut down much of South Korea's economy today in escalating protests against a new labor law and feared threats to civil liberties. The main target of worker fury was a law passed in a secretive predawn parliamentary session Thursday that makes it easier for employers to lay off workers and to hire replacements for strikers.

They nurse the sick in California, drive fuel trucks in Iraq, sail cargo ships through the Panama Canal and cruise ships through the Gulf of Alaska. They pour sake for Japanese salarymen and raise the children of Saudi businessmen. They are the Philippines' most successful export: its workers. Three decades ago, seeking sources of hard currency and an outlet for a fast-growing population, then-President Ferdinand Marcos encouraged Filipinos to find jobs in other countries.