CINA

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Government's threats led to the end/collapse of the strike of

power plant workers

Power company workers end strike, returning to work (Yonhap)

Unionized workers at South Korea's state-run power companies ended their strike Monday, just 15 hours after they walked off the job to press for improved working conditions and other demands.

The strike of the Korean Power Plant Industry Union began at 1:30 a.m. Monday as the workers failed to reach an agreement with management on demands for better working conditions and the reinstatement of fired colleagues.

The 6,500-member-union representing different regions of the nation -- Korea Midland Power Co., Korea Namdong Electrics, Korea Western Power Co., Korea Southern Power Co. and Korea East-West Power Co. -- had also demanded the government merge them into a single power company, remove a wage cap for workers and introduce a three-shift work system.

The government and management both rebuffed the demands.

"We've decided to withdraw our strike for strategic purposes," said union leader Lee Joon-sang. "We will resume negotiations with management in a bid to eventually achieve our demands."

Lee expressed concern over mounting discontent from the public over the walkout. "We understand people's worries about power plant operations," said Lee. "We were afraid that we could be misunderstood as taking the electricity supplies hostage," until our demands were met, he said, stressing that this was not the case.

The strike came despite the National Labor Relations Commission's decision on Sunday to have the government arbitrate the labor dispute, which defines any strike during the arbitration period illegal.

The move by the labor commission automatically makes it mandatory for workers to suspend any strike for 15 days pending further negotiations. If no breakthrough is made at the talks, both labor and management must accept an arbitration ruling by the commission.

Around 2,200 unionists staged a rally in downtown Seoul on Sunday, and moved to the Korea University campus where they stayed overnight.

As of 1:00 p.m. Monday, nearly 40 percent of the companies' workers participated in the strike, but power plants around the country operated without problems with management filling vacant posts with temporary workers, the government said.

The government and management warned of disciplinary action for those who did not end the illegal strike by 1 p.m.

Police have sought the arrest of 20 union leaders who organized the walkout.

This is the second strike by local power company employees, after the five regional power companies were created by the splitting up of state-owned Korea Electric Power Corp. in 2001. The previous 32-day walkout in 2002 also did not cause any disruptions in electricity generation.
http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20060904/620000000020060904174834E2.html

Power Union Ends Strike (K. Times)

Unionists of the nation’s power companies ended their half-day walkout voluntarily Monday afternoon and all of the members will return to work from Tuesday.

The decision came out as the government takes a hard-line stance against their demands and management agreed to talk further with the union on the remaining issues.

The union, with about 65,000 members at five companies under the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), announced the decision three hours after they started a full-scale strike.

The decision came hours before the government threatened to invoke its emergency arbitration power to ban them from striking for 15 days and police moved to arrest 20 union leaders.

``We’ve decided to end the strike and resume a negotiation with the management,’’ Lee Jun-sang, head of the union, said at a park near the Korea University in northern Seoul, where about 2,200 workers from regional companies nationwide were gathered for a sit-in.

Early in the morning yesterday, presidents of the five companies warned the striking workers to return to work by 1 p.m. According to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, more than 60 percent of unionists returned to work by that time. The remaining striking workers also began to return to workplaces after the announcement of scrapping the walkout.

Earlier, the power companies filed complaints against some 20 union leaders for the illegal strike, and said they would file compensation suits against the unionists. The police also planned to request arrest warrants for the leaders.

The union said they had sought the planned strike, as the management did not actively negotiate with the workers but waited for the government’s arbitration decision.

The unionized workers are demanding the KEPCO to consolidate the five regional companies into one, increase the number of workers, allow senior workers to participate in union activity, and abolish a cap on the rates of annual wage increases.

The company, however, confirmed their position not to accept the demands.

``Their call for the consolidation of firms is against the government’s policy to enhance power industry’s competitiveness, and it is beyond the subject of labor-management negotiation,’’ CEOs of the five companies said during a press briefing at the KEPCO headquarters in southern Seoul.

They also said they cannot allow senior workers’ union participation, as walkout by the seniors, in charge of core control at power plants, would bring about a total disruption of power supply.

Following the unionists’ walkout, 3,500 alternative workers have run the power plants. The power supply has not been disrupted.

In 2002, the power union staged a strike for 38 days.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200609/kt2006090417423010440.htm

Minjung-ui Sori(Voice of People) wrote following(there you can see also a video about the declaration of the end of the strike):

발전노조, 사측의 교섭제의에 파업중단

Following documentary was recorded in the night between yesterday and today in Goryeo/Korea Univ(to watch it, please click on "play").

Documentary by 숲속홍길동同志

PS: In my opinion this result - the end of the strike - isn't just caused by the threats of the gov't.. It might be also a result of a kind of weakness of the S.K. labour movement/KCTU.

And I think also that such "tactics"(by KCTU) are very dangerous for the next actions by the S.K. labour movement.. (That's just MY opinion!!)