S.Korean Railway Workers' Strike Enters Second Day
Posted on: Friday, 3 March 2006, 09:00 CST
S.Korean railway workers' strike enters second day
SEOUL, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Strikes by South Korean railway workers entered second day on Thursday, impacting the country's railway services heavily.
A total of 13,200 unionized workers at the state-run (South) Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL) launched walkout on Wednesday for their demands for better working conditions and higher salaries were not met.
On Thursday, part of the striking workers changed their tactic to go on strike, while the other part stopped the strike and return to work, reported South Korean Yonhap News Agency.
In wake of police's threat to crack down their rally, some 6, 000 railway workers who had been participated the sit-in in a train base in eastern Seoul for the past two days began to disperse Thursday.
The 6,000 unionists left train base in smaller groups to rally in different places as directed by the union leadership, reported Yonhap.
At the same time, as of Thursday noon, 14 percent 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 3:00 p.m. (0600 GMT) or face severe disciplinary measures.
The National Labor 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.
In the capital area, the strike interrupted subway services operated by the company to 40 percent 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.
On the railway linking Seoul with the southeastern city of Busan, only 48 percent of the bullet train services were operating normally.
Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS
Related Articles
- LAX Workers Walking Off Job Today To Protest Service Companies' Civil Rights Abuses, Continue Call for Good Jobs Needed to Ensure Quality Services and Airport Security
- CAE to Provide Training Centre Operations Services for Air Canada
- Subway service shut down in parts of New York
- H.K. To Merge Train and Subway Systems
- More S.Korean Striking Railway Workers Back to Work
- Railway Workers' Strike Disrupts Railway Services
- Union Leaders Urge an End to Strike That Has Disrupted French Rail Service
- Philadelphia Transit Workers Strike
- Siebel University Enhances Training and Learning Services With New Virtual Classroom, SimBuilder Development Tool; Best-of-Breed Learning Solutions Help Companies Maximize Siebel Investment
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds