Transportation chaos looms, as truckers join rail workers in strike

By Kim Eun-jung
SEOUL, Nov. 30 (Yonhap) -- The union of truck drivers said Monday it will refuse
to provide alternative transportation for Korea Railroad's (KORAIL) freight
service disrupted by its union workers' extended strike, dealing another blow to
the transportation industry nationwide.

The strike, launched by the KORAIL union's 16,000 workers, entered its fifth day
on Monday, taking a heavy toll on freight services nationwide as well as
passenger trains.
"We are aware that KORAIL's emergency plan for alternative transportation has its
own limitations," the Korea Cargo Transport Workers' Union (KCTWU) said in a
statement. "It seems like they have to transfer goods to the roads, but we will
thoroughly block them."
The two unions launched a collaborative strike in 2007 and KORAIL union supported
the KCTWU's strike last year.
As of late Monday, freight services had rebounded to 63 percent of their normal
capacity, or 17 runs, while the operation rate for cement and coal transportation
at Uiwang Inland Container Depot near Seoul stood at 26.1 percent, KORAIL said.
The bullet-train KTX and metropolitan subway lines were operating on normal
schedule, while the operation rate of ordinary passenger trains was cut back to
about 60 percent of their normal capacity, officials said.
"So far, businesses have managed to deal with the imports and exports using
freight trains and some alternative means of transportation. But we cannot
guarantee how many more days they can stand if the strike is extended," said an
official at the Korean Integrated Logistics Association.
Expressing deep concern about damage to the recovering economy, President Lee
Myung-bak and top government officials called on the striking rail workers to get
back to work as soon as possible.
KORAIL Monday filed complaints against 182 unionists for interfering with
business, claiming the illegal strike caused about 4.7 billion won (US$4 million)
worth of operational damage to the state-funded company.
Police said they have sent summons to 44 union leaders for questioning, accusing
them of masterminding the strike for political reasons in violation of the
country's labor law. Police said they plan to summon a total of 187 union
leaders, but none of them have responded to the summons so far.
KORAIL's union leaders said the strike follows disputes with the state-funded
company over pay and working conditions despite scores of talks between the union
and the management in the past months. The union has demanded a 6 percent pay
raise even as the government moves to reduce welfare benefits to ease the
troubled company's heavy debt burden.
"If they do not answer our summons, we will request arrest warrants any time
soon," an official at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said.
The Korean Confederation Trade Union (KCTU), the country's militant umbrella
labor group, fired back at attempts by the government and KORAIL management to
neutralize the strike without making efforts to deal with the issue.
"Although this strike was decided by the union members through legitimate vote,
the management and government have kept pressing the KORAIL union," KCTU said in
a press release. "We urge them to stop making negative propaganda against the
union and resume negotiations to solve this problem."
ejkim@yna.co.kr
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