Chaos Looms as Rail Workers Union Goes on Strike
20 November, 2019
The national rail workers' union went on an indefinite strike at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, threatening service disruptions across the board.
A union spokesperson said final negotiations with KORAIL for higher wages and hiring of more staff failed.
The last time rail workers went on strike was in 2016, which caused train services to be disrupted for 74 days.
This time, subway lines 1, 3 and 4 in Seoul will be affected, and some 31 percent of KTX bullet trains, 38 percent of regular trains and 69 percent of cargo trains will be canceled.
Unionized workers are demanding a four-percent wage hike and the hiring of 4,600 more workers to ease their workload and shifting some contract workers at subsidiaries to permanent positions.
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