Unionized workers of the Korea Railroad Corp. (Korail) and its subsidiaries on Friday announced plans for an indefinite strike starting Dec. 23, saying the government has failed to uphold its end of the bargain in their tentative agreement last week.
At a press conference held in front of Seoul Station, the Korean Railway Workers’ Union said the walkout would begin at 9 a.m. on Tuesday if the government fails to respond.
It claimed that the Ministry of Economy and Finance is trying to discard changes to the bonus system that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport submitted after a tentative agreement reached on Dec. 10.
"We urge the government to change its position for the last time. If the Finance Ministry continues to refuse the demands of railroad workers, we clearly state that it is entirely to blame for the disruptions," the union said in a statement.
The KRWU had initially planned to launch the strike on Dec. 11, demanding changes to the current performance-based bonus system, which is capped at 80 percent of base pay. The union demanded that the system be "normalized" to match the standards of other state-run corporations, which hand out bonuses at 100 percent of the base pay.
Korail operates Korea's major train systems, such as the high-speed KTX, and part of the metro networks in the greater Seoul area.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
