Joint Strikes
South Korean railway and subway workers’ unions, including the Korean Railway Workers’ Union and the Seoul Metro Union, go on strike with one another on September 27. This is to join the walkout by the public sector workers’ unions of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions in opposition to the adoption of performance-based pay the South Korean government is currently in pursuit of. This type of joint strike the railway and subway workers’ unions participate in is for the first time in 22 years.
The Korea Railroad Corporation, in the meantime, announced on September 26 that KTX trains, commuter trains and metropolitan subway trains will not be affected at all by the strike. “Essential personnel to be dispatched there are equivalent to 65% of personnel in the case of normal operation and, as such, there will be no particular problem unless the strike continues for a long period of time,” it said.
The Seoul Subway Union and the Seoul Metro Union, the two largest trade unions in the Seoul Metro Corporation running Seoul Subway Lines 1 to 4, and their peer in the Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation running Seoul Subway Lines 5 to 8 go on strike on the same day. All of them recently voted for a strike and have prepared for it.
In response, Seoul City organized an emergency committee and came up with some alternative public transit plans. It is going to maintain the same subway intervals during commuting hours by means of essential operators and Seoul City employees. Longer intervals seem to be unavoidable during non-commuting hours though.