By Ju-min Park and Heekyong Yang
SEOUL (Reuters) – A nationwide strike by South Korean truckers has led nearly 100 petrol stations across the country to run dry, government data show, and a national trade union said it might launch a general strike on Tuesday in support of the drivers.
The truckers’ strike over a minimum pay programme, which began on Nov. 24, has seen two negotiation sessions between the union and the federal government, but to date there was no breakthrough.
As supplies of fuel and construction materials run low, the South Korean government has stepped up pressure to finish the strike.
President Yoon Suk-yeol on Sunday ordered preparations to issue a return-to-work order for drivers in sectors corresponding to oil refining and steelmaking, where additional economic damage is anticipated. Yoon last week invoked such an order, the primary within the country’s history, for two,500 truckers within the cement industry.
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The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), an umbrella union under which the truckers’ union falls, has called the President’s “start work” order the equivalent of martial law and says the federal government should negotiate.
The KCTU said it had planned a walkout on Tuesday to support the truckers’ protests.
As of Monday afternoon, nearly 100 petrol stations had run out of fuel. About 60% of them were in Seoul and Gyeonggi province, a densely populated region near the capital, based on Korea National Oil Corp data. That’s up from the 21 petrol stations that the industry ministry had said were out of fuel on Nov. 28.
Amid soaring fuel costs, as many as 25,000 truckers are calling on the federal government to offer a everlasting minimum-pay system often called the “Protected Freight Rate”, which was introduced temporarily in 2020 for a small portion of greater than 400,000 truckers.
Of their second strike in lower than six months, those truckers are fighting the bitter cold and the federal government’s narrative that they’re well paid “labour aristocracy”.
The Yoon administration has said it might not give in to the union’s demands. The federal government has said it might extend the present program for 3 more years.
The impact of a general strike is unclear and is dependent upon participation, said Han Sang-jin, a KCTU spokeperson.
Labour minister Lee Jung-sik said on Monday that a general strike wouldn’t win public support.
The strikes have disrupted South Korea’s supply chain, and value greater than 3.2 trillion won ($2.46 billion) in lost shipments over the primary 10 days, the industry ministry said on Sunday.
Losses are expected to have grown in various industries, but traffic at ports has barely improved to 69% of its pre-strike average for the reason that back-to-order was issued, based on the federal government.
(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Heekyong Yang; Editing by Gerry Doyle)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
