The Busan Subway Labor Union(BSLU) which has been going on partial strike from December 13 announced an open ended strike from December 20.

This is the third walkout after the ones staged in September 27~30 and October 21~24. The BSLU said that during the strike period, some 1,000 staff will remain at work to maintain the essential services and the rest of around 2,000 staff will join the walkout.

In relation to a new subway line in Busan which will start service in April next year, the Busan Transportation Corporation(BTC) made a projection of 183 staff needed for the operation of the new subway line service. However, the BTC decided to recruit 181 and to deploy only 114 staff for the new line operation. The BSLU demanded that 197 new staff should be recruited and all of them should be deployed in the new line.

To find out a breakthrough in the stalled negotiation, the BSLU put forward a compromise proposal dealing with the reduction of working hours and the introduction of a new wage system that if the BTC accepts the new recruitment of 197, the union will yield in the 55% of the unpaid additional ordinary wages which incur every year with the amount of 30 billion won(US$ 25.1 million) of additional ordinary wages that the BTC has to pay to the workers. The rationale behind the union's demand is to ensure the safe subway transportation, to create jobs for the youth and to advance Busan.

reported by Yoon Ja-eun
translated by Kim Sung-jin