By Ji-Son Choi

The Korean Immigrants Workers Advocate (KIWA) office is made up of several rooms in the office, including a kitchen and office spaces for the staff. The kitchen is known as the "family room", where the staff gathers and eats their meals together.

One would think that because its office is located at 3465 West 8th Street in L.A.’s Koreatown, there would be an abundance of Korean restaurants in which the staff could enjoy meals.

As a matter of fact, there are hundreds of them. However, among these restaurants, KIWA has boycotted many. Thus, KIWA practices what they preach, and have not given business to such restaurants.

The other rooms are office spaces for the staff, a maze of small rooms. The ringing of phones, along with a mixture of different languages all intertwining in the comfortable silence intrigues the ears.

Different colored faces look up from their desks every so often to respond to one another as well as to questions of visitors. As if to build one unified wall, the desks are packed tightly next to one another, solidified not by each desk on its own, but by the connection of all the desks, which are lined up next to one another.

"Here are some informational packets about KIWA," beams Elizabeth Sunwoo, an enthusiastic KIWA staff organizer who is fresh from college but has a resume of an activist veteran.

Most of the staff members are college graduates, some from UC Berkeley, some UCLA, and their staff lawyer is a graduate from Harvard undergrad and Harvard Law, dedicating her life to a non-profit, non-government funded organization.

There are also staff members who are workers at Korean-owned businesses. Regardless of their current jobs, the workers make time to work at least part-time at KIWA.

When asked the question of how the staff manages to work so hard without much stipend, Elizabeth responds very firmly, "You have to be really dedicated." It is without a doubt that the staff is dedicated and works earnestly.

Mrs. Lee, a bright-eyed woman with an eye-crinkling smile has worked at many Koreatown restaurants. Following a series of work-related injuries, including a miscarriage, she sought to gain some sick pay while she was being treated for her injuries.

When her employer did not agree to the sick pay and nearly forced her to work even in bad health, she sought KIWA’s assistance. Now, she consults other workers.

While I was at the KIWA office, she spoke to four or five visitors in the span of three hours.

The staff members are a reflection of KIWA’s mission to be an active voice in justice.

The executive director and founder of KIWA was Roy Hong. He became an activist as a student and had been involved in progressive movements, such as the reunification of North and South Korea, "comfort women" of Korea, as well as international labor movements for Korea and the U.S.

KIWA’s co-founder is Danny Park who also had his beginnings as a student activist. Park is currently the executive director, succeeding Hong who resigned early this year.

The most involved staff organizers are Hoon Jun Kim, Jung Hee Lee (known as Mrs. Lee), Paul Lee, Elizabeth Sunwoo, and Roman Vargas.

Hoon Jun Kim was a student activist in Korea and is the newest addition to KIWA’s staff. Another organizer is Mrs. Lee. As mentioned before, she worked at restaurants in the Koreatown area. After attending several town meetings held by KIWA, she became active within the organization.

Paul Lee is yet another organizer who was a student activist at UCLA and began interning at KIWA during college. A year after KIWA had been established, he graduated UCLA and joined KIWA’s staff. Sunwoo spent her first two years of college working at the North Korea Famine organization on the east coast. She later moved to the west coast and became a student activist at USC.

Roman Vargas is an organizer on staff who had emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico. He was a worker at Korean-owned establishments and attended a seminar, which KIWA was heading up. He became involved shortly after his first encounter with KIWA.

The small KIWA office is nothing short of a powerhouse. Established in March of 1992, KIWA has helped immigrant workers of all ethnicities have a voice.

After the 1992 Los Angeles riots, when the Korean American Relief Fund (KARF) excluded worker victims as eligible for the relief fund, KIWA along with forty-five Latino and Korean workers contested this eligibility. As a result, the workers gained $109,000 from the relief fund.

Five years later, KIWA would assist garment workers to win more than $2 million from retailers and manufacturers of the infamous El Monte "slave shops". KIWA has tackled several industries, such as the garment, janitorial, electronic, and in particular, the restaurant industry.

KIWA started the Restaurant Workers Justice Campaign in 1996 to protect immigrant workers employed at Koreatown restaurants. According to KIWA’s records, there is an existing 280 + Korean-run restaurants in the Koreatown vicinity. During a random check, the U.S. Department of Labor discovered over 95% of Koreatown restaurants violated the labor laws. To further support workers at such unlawful establishments, KIWA has developed a Worker Empowerment Clinic to assist workers with legal services that they would, otherwise, have no access to.

One of KIWA’s latest achievements was the settlement of a lawsuit against Elephant Snack Corner Restaurant in Koreatown, which was brought by its former employees one year ago.

In an unprecedented settlement, the employer agreed to pay an undisclosed sum in compensation, as well as to participate in procedures to ensure that the restaurant complies with labor laws.

The employer agreed to a three-year monitoring scheme, where KIWA and MALDEF will hold labor law seminars for current employees and monitor payroll practices for three years. The wage dispute has been the subject of weekly community protests since April 2000.

KIWA, a non-government funded and non-profit organization, is on the forefront of change. Apart from the Koreatown Restaurant Workers Justice Campaign and Worker Empowerment Clinic, KIWA is leading up many other different projects, such as the Voter Awareness, the North Korean Famine Relief Support, the International Labor Movement Support, the Garment Workers Advocacy, the Summer Activist Training, and Police Accountability.

"Warriors" is the only word that comes to mind about KIWA. During a restaurant boycott in 1998, Roy Hong participated in a hunger strike for nine days, not even taking food on Christmas day.

Passionate and Driven they desire change in a community that has remained silent for so long, willing to fight in an uphill battle.

The KIWA mission statement states: "[it is our mission] to empower Korean immigrant workers and to develop a progressive constituency and leadership in the Korean community that can struggle in solidarity with other underrepresented communities for social change and justice."

By the way KIWA is serving the community of immigrant workers, "social change and justice" will not be too far away.