Traffic, logistic disruptions likely when railway trade union goes on strike

[Photo by Yonhap]

The first general strike called by the Korean Railway Workers’ Union (KRWU) is a day away and will take place from 9 a.m. on Thursday to 9 a.m. on Monday.

If the railway union goes on strike as announced, passenger and freight trains, including the Korea Train eXpress (KTX), will be forced to operate at a 20-60 percent reduced capacity, causing passenger inconvenience and disruption to industries.

The KRWU announced a strike at a press conference at the Railroad Building in Yongsan, Seoul last week, saying “We proposed a social dialogue (on KTX operation to Suseo) to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport while suspending work-to-rule actions on September 2, but our proposal was rejected.”

The strike will be the first in nearly four years since November 2019.

The vote on taking industrial action, held by the railroad union between August 28 and 30, was passed with a 64.4 percent approval rate.

The KRWU is calling for the expansion of public railways, full implementation of the four group, two shift plan as well as good faith bargaining and the fulfilment of agreements.

“The four group, two shift plan is designed to improve the difficulties of working two consecutive nights, and the plan’s full implementation has been delayed for more than four years although it is part of the labor-management agreement,” the union said. “The railroad workers‘ strike is based on the urgent need to secure on-site safety.”

The union has held six rounds of working talks and one round of plenary talks with the management since July but failed to reach an agreement. The National Labor Relations Commission has also failed to mediate the dispute.

Starting Wednesday, the Land Ministry will expand the existing emergency taskforce into a joint government taskforce for emergency transportation with Vice Minister for Transport Baek Won-kug at the helm.

The ministry plans to minimize public inconvenience by using substitute personnel to ensure that the operation rate of metro trains and KTX during rush hours is maintained at 70 percent of the usual level.

“We will do our utmost to ensure that people’s commutes are not disrupted by deploying additional high-speed and intercity buses, actively cooperating with local governments to expand Seoul Subway Lines 1, 3, and 4, and making enough chartered and reserve buses available to meet the demand,” an official from the ministry said.

The railway union previously went on an indefinite general strike on November 20, 2019, demanding the hiring of 4,000 workers to introduce the four group, two shift work system but went back to work on November 25 after reaching an agreement with the management.

At the time, only 20.7 percent of freight train traffic was in operation, causing logistical disruptions. The operation rate of the KTX was also 87.5 percent of its usual capacity, while regular passenger trains’ operation rate was 69.6 percent and that of subways 82.4 percent, causing inconvenience to passengers.