Industrial relations

What’s on tonight: TV drama depicts workers’ unionization

Awl, a highly-rated Korean soap opera, is on VTV2 every evening.

News | 31 March 2018
HANOI (ILO News) – A highly-rated Korean soap opera about the unionization of workers is now on air on Viet Nam Television 2 (VTV2) every day at 19:50.

The Awl portrays the average workers, who silently work hard on each one’s own task at a large retail market in South Korea. After the employer seeks to save on termination and employment costs by making the retail staff resign and replacing them with temporary workers, they finally pull together as a team to fight against unfair dismissals.

The drama is based on a webtoon of the same name, which is in turn inspired by real-life events that took place in 2002 when union workers were unfairly fired from large supermarket chain Carrefour, and fought back.

The Awl, directed by Kim Suk-Yoon, was first released in South Korea in 2015.

In Viet Nam, it has been broadcast on VTV2 since 27 March 2018. The soap opera could be also watched online on VTV Go at http://vtvgo.vn/xem-truc-tuyen-kenh-vtv2-2.html.