ID :
74404
Sat, 08/08/2009 - 22:56
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/74404
The shortlink copeid
Police seek to arrest 44 in Ssangyong plant clash
(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; RESTRUCTURES and TRIMS throughout)
PYEONGTAEK, South Korea, Aug. 8 (Yonhap) -- Police said Saturday they sought
arrest warrants for 44 people over a months-long strike by laid-off workers of
the Ssangyong Motor Co. that has paralyzed the ailing carmaker.
Police earlier detained 96 Ssangyong workers and civic group leaders,
investigating whether they conducted illegal activities during the May 21-Aug. 2
strike before a labor-management compromise was reached this week.
Production at Ssangyong's sole plant in this rural town has been shut down for
more than two months as nearly 1,000 unionized workers protesting a mass layoff
occupied a paint shop and other facilities. The company said it will resume
production activities at the plant next week.
Police sought arrest warrants for unionized Ssangyong workers and activists who
launched sympathy-protests on the charges violent conduct and interfering with
company production and police duties.
"We will punish all those who led the protest or used violence," Cho Hyun-oh,
commissioner of the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency, said at Friday's news
briefing. "People who assaulted a police officer or damaged police equipment
should be held accountable."
In February, Ssangyong Motor received bankruptcy protection in exchange for
implementing a turnaround plan calling for 36 percent of its workforce, or 2,646
employees, to be cut.
Since then, some 1,670 workers have left the company through voluntary retirement
plans, while the remaining 976 workers went on strike at the factory in
Pyeongtaek some 70km south of Seoul. When riot police attempted to move into the
plant and evacuate it, unionists and police clashed violently.
Ssangyong has to submit the turnaround plan to its creditors and a bankruptcy
judge by Sept. 15. In the first six months of this year, Ssangyong's auto sales
plunged 73.9 percent from the same period last year to 13,020 units.
Ssangyong is still 51-percent owned by China's Shanghai Automotive Industry
Corp., but the Chinese parent lost management control after Ssangyong entered
bankruptcy protection.
hayney@yna.co.kr
(END)
PYEONGTAEK, South Korea, Aug. 8 (Yonhap) -- Police said Saturday they sought
arrest warrants for 44 people over a months-long strike by laid-off workers of
the Ssangyong Motor Co. that has paralyzed the ailing carmaker.
Police earlier detained 96 Ssangyong workers and civic group leaders,
investigating whether they conducted illegal activities during the May 21-Aug. 2
strike before a labor-management compromise was reached this week.
Production at Ssangyong's sole plant in this rural town has been shut down for
more than two months as nearly 1,000 unionized workers protesting a mass layoff
occupied a paint shop and other facilities. The company said it will resume
production activities at the plant next week.
Police sought arrest warrants for unionized Ssangyong workers and activists who
launched sympathy-protests on the charges violent conduct and interfering with
company production and police duties.
"We will punish all those who led the protest or used violence," Cho Hyun-oh,
commissioner of the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency, said at Friday's news
briefing. "People who assaulted a police officer or damaged police equipment
should be held accountable."
In February, Ssangyong Motor received bankruptcy protection in exchange for
implementing a turnaround plan calling for 36 percent of its workforce, or 2,646
employees, to be cut.
Since then, some 1,670 workers have left the company through voluntary retirement
plans, while the remaining 976 workers went on strike at the factory in
Pyeongtaek some 70km south of Seoul. When riot police attempted to move into the
plant and evacuate it, unionists and police clashed violently.
Ssangyong has to submit the turnaround plan to its creditors and a bankruptcy
judge by Sept. 15. In the first six months of this year, Ssangyong's auto sales
plunged 73.9 percent from the same period last year to 13,020 units.
Ssangyong is still 51-percent owned by China's Shanghai Automotive Industry
Corp., but the Chinese parent lost management control after Ssangyong entered
bankruptcy protection.
hayney@yna.co.kr
(END)
