S.Korean Subway Union Ends Strike 


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

Monday April 26 9:19 AM ET  

S.Korean Subway Union Ends Strike


By Yoo Choon-sik

SEOUL (Reuters) - Subway workers in Seoul ended a week-old strike Monday,
defusing growing tensions between South Korea's public sector labor unions
and the government.

Seok Chi-soon, president of the union at Seoul Metropolitan Subway Corp,
announced late Monday that union leaders had decided to end the strike and
return to work, state-run Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) television said.

An official at the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU)
confirmed leaders of the subway union had decided to end the strike, which
had cast clouds over the country's nascent recovery from severe recession.

The strike by the subway workers' union was dealt a severe blow earlier
Monday when the 42,000 member union at state-run telephone company Korea
Telecom cancelled a planned strike because of a lack of support from its
members and non-union employees said it would reopen talks with the
government.

South Korean labor leaders last week announced a ``spring offensive'' of
strikes and mass rallies aimed at pressuring the government to slow down
restructuring in bloated corporations which is leading to mass layoffs.

The government had maintained a hardline stance against the striking workers.

``Public opinion is against them. I think these illegal strikes will
weaken,'' Labour Minister Lee Ki-ho told Reuters earlier Monday.

Up to 9,000 of the 10,000 unionized workers had walked out at one point of
time, disrupting operations on three of seven subway lines in the country's
densely populated capital.

But almost half of the striking workers deserted their colleagues and
returned to work by Monday, largely because of weak public support and
after the government threatened to fire them unless they returned by Monday.

Despite the moves, however, the militant KCTU which has a membership of
500,000, vowed it would step up its fight against massive layoffs resulting
from the government-led corporate restructuring.

The KCTU, which is leading a campaign of rolling strikes, has said the
170,000-strong metal workers federation would down tools in the automotive
industry starting Tuesday.

Hospital workers would also join the strike call, it said.

Thousands of workers at Daewoo Heavy Industries Ltd's shipbuilding yard
have been on strike since last week, as have scientists and academics at
state-run research institutes.

The government has declared the strikes illegal. Sunday, thousands of
striking subway union workers and students threw firebombs at riot police,
who smashed through their barricades at a Seoul university. No one was
injured.

Workers and police also clashed at Myongdong Catholic Cathedral in Seoul.
Labour and other activists often take refuge in the cathedral or on
university campuses to avoid arrest.

Analysts said the strikes would not harm the still fragile investment
climate in Korea if they remained largely peaceful and were not prolonged.

``The government's handling of the labor unrest is surprisingly tough this
time,'' said Henry Morris, director of Industrial Research and Consulting
Ltd. ``That will make a favorable impression on foreign investors.''  

 
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