Trade unions of public agencies began the joint industrial action to head off the performance appraisal and dismissal system. 54,000 workers from 10 public agencies of railways, subways, hospitals and social insurances on September 27 participated in the strike and in 13 different regions strike launching rallies were held.
The Korean Public & Social Services and Transportation Workers Union made a statement on the occasion of the gen...eral strike launching rally that they will join the general strike which will be the largest industrial action organized by the public sector trade unions in Korean labor history to confront the government's labor reform drive not pursuant to the law and the offence of the privatization policy.
The statement continued that their industrial action is to demand the 'true' labor and public sector reform by firmly rejecting the competition for the appointment of chief executive officers through the influence of the corrupt power and regularizing the contingent workers starting from the public sector and making the operation of public agencies to serve the people.
The Government defined the strikes led by the trade unions of public agencies as illegal strikes and urged them to call off the strikes. In some workplaces, striking workers were removed from their positions en masse.
The striking trade unions are as follows; Korean Railway Workers Union, National Health Insurance Service Union, National Pension Service Union, Seoul National University Hospital Union, Korea Gas Union, Seoul Subway Union, Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Union, Busan Subway Union, Korea Education & Research Information Service Union, and Korea Youth Work Agency Union.
These 10 unions have already notified of the indefinite strikes. The strike action is anticipated to prolong unless the dialogue between the government and the trade unions commences. Since more unions plan to go on strikes on September 28 and 29, the number of striking workers will gradually increase.
The confrontation between the Government and trade unions, and between the employers and trade unions are getting intensified. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Ministry of Employment and Labor held a joint briefing in the morning of September 27 and urged the Korean Railway Workers Union to 'stop the illegal strike action immediately' and revealed that they will take stern actions against 'illegal behavior'.
The Korea Railway Corporation has already removed 23 union officers from their positions. Union officers were concerned about that there would be additional 100 workers to be removed from the positions. In the case of Busan Subway Union, 7 union officers were removed from the positions, just 1 hour after the strike began, and followed by additional 840 union members removed from the positions in the afternoon.
reported by Yoon Ja-eun
edited in English by Kim Sung-jin
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