Seoul Subway Union Announces "Indefinite Strike from the 22nd" Demanding Withdrawal of Staff Reduction Plan

"We Will Not Give Up Efforts for Dialogue"

The Seoul Metro Workers' Union, which operates Seoul Subway Lines 1 to 8, announced on the 15th that it will carry out an indefinite second general strike starting from the 22nd. The first strike was temporarily held for two days.

The Seoul Metro Workers' Union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) Public Transport Union held a press conference in front of Seoul City Hall on the same day to disclose the strike schedule. The union decided on the struggle plan at the Central Dispute Countermeasures Committee meeting held the previous afternoon.

The Seoul Metro Union under the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union (KPTU) held a press conference for the second general strike in front of Seoul City Hall on the 15th. Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

At the press conference, Myung Soon-pil, chairman of the union, said, "The city's and the corporation's coercive workforce reduction drive, which is for show and performance, ignores labor laws and collective agreements," adding, "Furthermore, it threatens the lives and safety of citizens and subway workers." However, the union stated, "We are always ready to negotiate for the safety of all of us," and "The union will not give up efforts to narrow differences with a sincere attitude during the remaining week."

The corporation and the union have consistently shown disagreements over the workforce reduction plan. At the final negotiation on the 8th, the corporation proposed an additional agreement including ▲660 new hires with about 270 additional personnel ▲resolution of wage erosion ▲increase in joint labor-management event funds and special rewards. However, the union did not accept this and conducted a warning strike from the first train on the 9th until 6 p.m. on the 10th. Since the strike, the labor and management have not yet scheduled the main negotiations. However, the Seoul Metro Integrated Union under the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) and the MZ generation union, Olbareun Nojo, will not participate in this strike.

The corporation decided to reconsider the agreement drafted during the practical negotiation process from scratch due to the union's warning strike. Along with this, the planned new hiring for the second half of the year will be fully suspended. Seoul City also holds a tough stance. In a statement on the 9th, the city said, "We will respond firmly without compromise to strikes that express union dissatisfaction at the expense of citizen inconvenience," adding, "We will root out the long-standing bad practices during this opportunity."

As the union enters a strike for the second consecutive year, traffic disruption is inevitable. During the warning strike held on the 9th and 10th, train operation rates were maintained at 100% during the morning rush hours from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. according to the essential service agreement between labor and management. Additionally, five emergency standby trains were deployed on Lines 2, 3, and 5, which have high passenger volumes, to reduce congestion during the evening rush hour. However, congestion occurred as the operation rate during the evening rush hours (6 p.m. to 8 p.m.) dropped to 87% compared to normal times.

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