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South Korean Rail Workers Disperse, Unions Still Out As Talks Fail

Posted on: Thursday, 2 March 2006, 12:00 CST

Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap

Seoul, 2 March: Thousands of railway workers who had been rallying in eastern Seoul for the past two days began to disperse Thursday [2 March] following the threat of a police crackdown, union officials said.

About 6,000 unionists from the state-run Korean Railroad Corp. (KORAIL) were leaving a train base in eastern Seoul in smaller groups to rally in different places as directed by the union leadership, the officials said.

Some unionists, mostly senior drivers, had already informed the company of their intention to return to work, raising hope for an earlier normalization of railway operations. Many others are expected to follow suit.

As of noon, 14 per cent of the striking workers were back at work, with only three hours before the ultimatum set by KORAIL.

The company has ordered unionists to return to work by 3 p.m. [local time, 0600 gmt], or face severe disciplinary measures.

A total of 13,200 unionists, more than half of the 25,510 members of the union, went on strike in the early hours of Wednesday, a holiday in South Korea, demanding higher pay, better working conditions and reinstatement of fired colleagues.

The move came after police threatened to send personnel to disperse striking railway workers, calling the collective action illegal.

"We have yet to decide on the timing but will soon put public forces at the site of the strike," an official at the National Police Agency said on condition of anonymity.

Another police source said the deployment would be made in the evening at the earliest to disrupt the walkout.

The threatened police measure is now ineffective in Seoul with the voluntary dispersal of striking unionists, but thousands of others at sit-in rallies at regional bases are still under pressure.

The police have obtained court-issued warrants to arrest 11 union leaders on charges of orchestrating the illegal strike.

The National Labour Relations Commission said Tuesday it would arbitrate the strike, mandating a 15-day cooling off period by unionists. The commission's decision to arbitrate makes the railway workers' strike illegal.

Unionists continued to strike for a second day Thursday as overnight negotiations to end the strike broke down with no progress.

The impact of the strike began to be felt Thursday morning as people went to work and students returned to school after the winter vacation break.

In the capital area, the strike curtailed subway services operated by the company to 40 per cent of normal levels, leaving many of the city's train commuters stranded on crowded platforms during the morning rush hour.

KORAIL operates the country's national passenger and freight railways and jointly operates three subway lines with Seoul Metro Subway.

Cars moved at a snail's pace on major roads in the capital area as many opted to drive to work rather than brave crowded subway carriages.

On the railway linking Seoul with the southeastern city of Pusan, only 48 per cent of the KTX bullet-train services were operating normally. The number of Saemaeul trains operating on the line was cut to four from the normal 28.

Tickets for KTX trains from Seoul to Pusan, the country's second- largest city, were sold out in the early hours of the day, except for seats in business class, because of the smaller number of trains in service.

Losses in the industrial sector are expected to snowball although no official data has yet to be made available. The nation's container, cement and oil companies were believed to be hard with only 11 per cent of cargo trains in service, according to company officials.

Government officials said about half of the container-carrying trains from Pusan to Seoul had been cancelled.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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