Seoul bus union to strike from Sept. 16 if further talks fail
Seoul bus union members could halt city services from Sept. 16 unless wage talks with management reach a last-minute deal.
Buses are parked at a bus depot in Eunpyeong District, northern Seoul, on Jan. 14, when Seoul's bus union launched a strike over a dispute over ordinary wages.
YONHAP
Seoul's bus labor union said wage and collective bargaining talks with management have broken down, with members set to launch a full-scale strike on Sept. 16 if the two sides fail to reach a final agreement.
The Seoul Bus Union of the Korean Automobile & Transport Workers' Federation filed for mediation with the Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission on Thursday. A first mediation session is scheduled for Wednesday, followed by a vote among union members on Sept. 11 and a second mediation session on Sept. 15.
If the union and management fail to reach an agreement at the second mediation session, union members plan to halt city bus services starting with the first buses running on Sept. 16. The date falls about a week before the Chuseok holiday, which runs from Sept. 24 to 26 this year.
The union staged Seoul's longest bus strike on record in January, with members walking off the job for two days starting Jan. 13 over a dispute over ordinary wages. The two sides remain sharply divided in the latest negotiations over the number of working hours used to calculate ordinary wages.
The union is demanding that unpaid wages be calculated using 176 hours as the monthly divisor for converting monthly ordinary wages into an hourly rate, a standard recognized by the Supreme Court in April in a lawsuit involving Dong-A Transportation.
A lower divisor results in a higher hourly ordinary wage, which benefits workers.
Management, however, argues that a monthly divisor of 209 to 230 hours should be used because related litigation remains ongoing, including cases that have been sent back to lower courts for retrial. It has also proposed freezing wages and eliminating bonuses and holiday allowances, which drew opposition from the union.
The union accused the Seoul city government and management of breaking an earlier promise to follow the standard set by the Supreme Court ruling. It also claimed management was seeking what it described as an "effective wage cut" and warned that it would respond with strong industrial action.
The Seoul bus transport association, which represents management, criticized what it described as the union's annual practice of voting to strike and using the potential disruption to commuters as leverage, expressing concern over a possible strike just before the Chuseok holiday.
BY KO SEUNG-PYO [[email protected]]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
