Concerns grow as strike drags on

Unionized railway workers went on strike for a fifth day yesterday, furthering inconvenience to commuters and causing major economic losses.

Neither management nor labor appeared willing to give an inch after they failed to narrow their differences over working conditions and fired employees last week. Both sides are bracing for a long strike.

According to the state-run Korean Railroad, the company saw an operating loss of 4.76 billion won ($4 million) during the past four days since the walk out started on Thursday. The stoppage of cargo and passenger trains caused the largest 3.33 billion won, the company said.

"If the strike drags on, the damages will also further increase. We will seek compensation from the union," said a KORAIL official.



In order to minimize the impact to the public, a total of 5,600 temporary workers have been mobilized as substitutes for striking members and some 1,200 of them are retired locomotive drivers, soldiers and railway college students.

With subway trains in the Seoul metropolitan area, KTX bullet trains and other commuter trains operating as normal thanks to substitute workers, the union criticized that the company was recklessly mobilizing people.

"As the substitutes include inexperienced or aged workers, it is worrisome that they might not be able to handle emergency situations, resulting in accidents," said an official at the union.

Indeed, there were some minor cases where trains were delayed or stopped wrongly at stations.

The company said that substituting workers may result in some confusion because they drive unfamiliar routes but that it is unavoidable in the early days of the strike. "They will get used to it," said a company official.

The union`s 16,000 members, excluding essential staff for railway maintenance, are joining the general strike in protest against the company`s unilateral annulment of the labor collective agreement.

KORAIL CEO Huh Joon-young, however, has signaled no hint of compromise unless the union ends the stoppage first, pledging to punish all participants in the collective action.

Meanwhile, the Korea Cargo Transport Workers Federation yesterday decided not to cooperate with the KORAIL on the company`s possible transport request.

"KORAIL may be limited in dealing with the situation on its own. We will block the company`s attempt at road transport," said an official of the truckers` union.

"We have to join forces to win the fight for all of us. We have also decided to stage our strike following the schedule of the KRWU."

Affiliated with the hardline Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the truckers` union consists of nearly 1,500 truckers nationwide. However, labor authorities and the transportation firms that hire truckers do not recognize the right to collective action of the truckers` union because they mostly own their own trucks.

(jylee@heraldm.com)







By Lee Ji-yoon