First Day of Bus Strike Amid Confusion... What Are Changwon City's Future Measures?

Changwon Special City in Gyeongnam announced on the 19th that it will continue additional negotiations to ensure the early end of the strike by the unions of nine city bus companies.

At a briefing held that day, the city drew a clear line by stating, "This bus strike is entirely due to conflicts between labor and management," but also said, "We are doing our best to facilitate smooth negotiations between labor and management."

"We will set up a negotiation table to resolve conflicts between labor and management and to end the strike early," adding, "However, productivity and budget scale of other metropolitan cities such as Seoul and Busan, which also operate quasi-public transportation systems like ours, must be taken into account."

The city sent out notification texts to citizens regarding the city bus strike on the night of the 18th and the morning of the 19th, and deployed pre-arranged emergency transportation starting from 6 a.m. that day.

According to the city, a total of 152 vehicles, including 142 charter buses and 10 public buses, were deployed on 57 bus routes, and 800 rented taxis were deployed on 41 routes, maintaining an operation rate of about 34% compared to normal service.

Additionally, 304 people, including 204 members of local self-governing organizations and 100 public officials, were mobilized across various locations to assist with boarding guidance for emergency transportation vehicles.

Lee Seung-ryong, Director of the Transportation and Construction Bureau of Changwon City, Gyeongnam, is announcing the response situation and future plans regarding the city bus strike.
[Photo by Lee Se-ryeong]

At the briefing, criticism arose that the charter buses arranged by the city to replace the usual city bus demand were far from sufficient to completely alleviate citizen inconvenience.

Although 800 taxis were deployed during commuting hours, each could only carry up to three passengers, and there were reports that drivers were unfamiliar with the assigned bus routes.

There was also criticism that the timing of sending notification texts about the expected strike and breakdown of negotiations was somewhat delayed.

The city stated, "We have been trying to contract charter buses since last week in preparation for the strike, but due to student field trips and study tours as well as the spring tourism season, it has been difficult to secure buses," adding, "We will continue efforts to secure charter buses and plan to additionally secure and deploy rented taxis during commuting hours on the 20th."

"We asked drivers to search for routes on portals, but it seems this was not done properly," the city added, "We will conduct additional route familiarization training to reduce confusion on site."

Lee Seung-ryong, Director of the New Transportation Construction Bureau, said, "We apologize for the shortcomings in responding to the strike," and added, "We will improve the issues and actively work to further alleviate citizen inconvenience tomorrow."

According to officials, the Changwon City Bus Union Council demanded ▲ a 7.4% wage increase ▲ increased vacation pay ▲ guaranteed rest time after operating during traffic congestion hours ▲ extension of retirement age from the current 62 to 65 years.

The management side stated that they cannot accept a wage increase higher than 3.5%, which is the wage increase rate applied in Seoul and Busan, where the city bus quasi-public transportation system is implemented.

The final mediation meeting, which began around 3 p.m. on the 18th at the Gyeongnam Regional Labor Commission, continued until the early morning of the 19th.

Although the union, which initially demanded a 9.0% wage increase, agreed on a final increase rate of 3.5% after negotiations, seemingly lifting the shadow of a general strike, the negotiations ultimately broke down due to failure to reach an agreement on welfare issues such as retirement age extension, vacation pay increase, and tuition payment.

Changwon City plans to mediate between labor and management once negotiations resume in the future.

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