Railway union puts off strike after subway union reaches deal

SEOUL, Nov. 20 (Yonhap) -- A railway workers' union said Thursday that it put on hold a nationwide strike and will further weigh negotiations, averting what would have been the first walkout in a state-run company under the Lee Myung-bak administration.

The announcement came at 5 a.m., just hours before the labor union of Korea
Railroad Corp. (Korail) was set to go on strike at 9 a.m.
"The strike directive is put on hold, and union members at demonstration sites
will return to work," Hwang Jeong-woo, head of the strike measures committee of
the Korean Railway Workers' Union, said in a statement to the union's 25,170
members nationwide.
Hwang said the committee members will meet at 3 p.m. again to decide whether to
resume negotiations with the Korail management or go on strike. But prospects for
a rail strike seemed dim, in the wake of a breakthrough agreement that Seoul
city's subway union -- who had also been threatening to strike -- reached with
the government. The deal was struck at 4 a.m. after 11-hour-long negotiations.
Korail, which runs all trains nationwide and some subways in and around Seoul,
plans to lay off up to 4,000 workers, or 10 percent of all employees, by 2012 to
reduce mounting deficits. By the end of this year, 715 job cuts are sought. The
railroad also wants to privatize management for some of its facilities, such as
train stations and lost-and-found offices, to cut costs.
Protesting the planned job cuts and privatization, the Korail union voted to
strike on Oct. 31, with 94 percent casting votes and 61 percent of them backing a
walkout.
Negotiations hit a snag when the Korail chief, Kang Kyung-ho, was arrested on
bribery charges on Nov. 17.
President Lee Myung-bak, while visiting Brazil on Tuesday warned, "We will
sternly deal with the illegal strike if (the labor union of) a state-run company
launches an illegal strike at this difficult time."