One Day Until Seoul City Bus Strike...Final Negotiation Today

[Financial News] The Seoul city bus labor and management will hold final negotiations until midnight today. If negotiations fail, the bus union will launch a strike at a nationwide 'service suspension' level. Seoul city buses are on the verge of a strike for the second consecutive year. The labor and management are conducting the final adjustment in private and are engaged in last-minute negotiations.
The Seoul Special City Bus Transport Business Association announced in a statement on the 28th, "Based on the judgment that dialogue and compromise are the shortcuts to labor-management coexistence, we requested the union to proceed with today's negotiation delegation, and it was successful," and "We request to resolve the accumulated issues such as the wage system reform through sincere dialogue."
Until the last day of adjustment, the issue of 'ordinary wages' remains a point of sharp confrontation between labor and management. According to Seoul City, the bus union and management have held a total of nine main negotiations this year, and despite continuing working-level consultations after the second adjustment meeting failed on the 29th of last month, they have not been able to narrow their differences.
The union side stated, "The labor union is repeating an unreasonable negotiation attitude of 'not negotiating if the word ordinary wage is brought up,'" and "We have not been able to properly discuss how much the wage increase rate will be this year."
On the other hand, a union official said, "The management has never clearly stated its position on the union's demands," and "Today, we responded to the negotiation to hear that story directly." The union also maintains the stance that "the union and Seoul City cannot negotiate unless the ordinary wage reform is discussed," and "ordinary wages cannot be the subject of wage negotiations as the Supreme Court has already made a ruling."
The union argues that based on the Supreme Court's ruling in December last year to include 'regular bonuses in ordinary wages,' the regular bonuses of bus drivers should also be reflected as ordinary wages. In this case, overtime pay, night work pay, and severance pay will also increase. According to Seoul City's estimate, if the union's initial demand for an 8.2% increase rate is applied to the existing wage system, the actual wage increase rate is found to be 25%.
The Korean Federation of Trade Unions National Automobile Workers' Federation, to which the Seoul bus union belongs, announced that if negotiations are not concluded by today, they will go on strike from the first bus on the 28th. This movement is not limited to Seoul. Busan, Ulsan, and Changwon in Gyeongnam will also go on strike simultaneously from the 28th, and Jeonnam and Gwangju will start their strike from the 29th.
The union expects that if the strike becomes a reality, the operation of about 12,000 city buses nationwide will be suspended. Given that about 7,400 buses are serving as the feet of citizens in Seoul alone, significant disruption to public transportation is inevitable.
Seoul city buses went on strike for the first time in 12 years last December. At that time, all routes were halted from the first bus due to the breakdown of wage negotiations, causing a morning commute chaos. However, the strike was resolved in 11 hours as labor and management agreed on a wage increase and holiday allowance payment, and full operation resumed from 3:10 PM.

chlee1@fnnews.com Lee Chang-hoon Reporter