Daejeon City Buses to Stop... Negotiations Fail, 'General Strike' and Emergency Transport Measures Implemented

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Operation of city buses in Daejeon will be partially suspended due to a breakdown in labor-management negotiations.

According to Daejeon City on the 30th, the Local City Bus Labor Union and the Daejeon Transportation Business Association will halt city bus operations starting from the first bus (5:30 a.m.) on the same day.

This follows the failure of voluntary negotiations and special adjustments between labor and management. Although negotiations began at 4 p.m. the previous day, no agreement was reached, and the final breakdown was declared at 2 a.m. on the 30th.

The city plans to focus on minimizing confusion caused by the strike by implementing emergency transportation measures in response to the union's strike.

There are a total of 13 city bus companies operating within Daejeon, and 10 of these companies are participating in the strike.

First, the city will operate city buses from three companies not participating in the strike?Daejeon Transportation, Geumnam Transportation, and Donggeon Transportation?as well as non-unionized available city buses. With these companies and personnel, 394 city buses will operate to maintain normal service on 29 routes in transportation-disadvantaged areas.

Additionally, the city will fill the gap caused by the city bus strike by renting 197 charter buses, increasing urban railway services (from 242 to 290 runs), and lifting taxi restrictions. Through these measures, the city expects to maintain about 61% of normal weekday service and 72% on weekends compared to regular city bus operations.

During the strike period, city buses and charter buses will be available free of charge.

Meanwhile, this strike is the first to be carried out in 14 years since 2007. Prior to the strike, the union demanded a three-year extension of the retirement age, a 4.7% wage increase, and the inclusion of paid holidays on legal public holidays in the collective agreement, but the management rejected these demands.

The management stated that it is difficult to accept the union's demands due to the introduction and implementation of the bus quasi-public system, which involves an annual tax input of over 100 billion won, and the worsening financial difficulties caused by a decrease in city bus users due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Heo Tae-jung, Mayor of Daejeon, said, "We hoped for smooth negotiations, but we regret that this has ultimately caused inconvenience to citizens due to the suspension of city bus operations. We will do our best to ensure thorough emergency transportation measures and to bring the strike to a swift end."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.