Additional Ssangyong workers placed under arrest

By Kim Eun-jung
PYEONGTAEK, South Korea, Aug. 11 (Yonhap) -- A local court on Tuesday issued
arrest warrants for an additional 37 Ssangyong Motor workers and one labor
activist, who were detained earlier on charges of staging a violent strike at the
troubled automaker.
The latest arrests, which included Han Sang-kyun, chief of Ssangyong Motor's
labor union, brought the number of arrests related to Ssangyong's months-long
strike to 64. Unionized Ssangyong workers and outside labor activists ended 76
days of occupation of the automaker's sole factory in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul,
last Thursday when its representatives and management reached an agreement on
downsizing.
The Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency had requested arrest warrants for 42
protesters, but the Suwon District Court turned down warrants for four of them,
court officials said.
"The matter is grave and there are possibilities of the detained protesters
fleeing and destroying evidence," the court said.
Since February, the company has been under court-approved bankruptcy protection
that requires the firm to shed over 2,500 workers, or 36 percent of its
workforce. But hundreds of unionized workers had staged a sit-in, calling for the
scrapping of the restructuring plan. The strike paralyzed the plant and caused
316 billion won (US$257.3 million) in lost production.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
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