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Today's (conservative/reactionary) JoongAng Ilbo reported the following:

Incheon-Seoul bus drivers strike

Workers at a major express bus company that carries 50,000 Incheon residents to Seoul daily went on strike yesterday, raising fears of crippled commutes and forcing Incheon officials to scramble to find alternative transportation for its residents.

The labor union of Samwha Express Company confirmed yesterday that its workers walked off the job at 5 a.m. to demand a bigger pay raise than the company has offered, suspending services of a total of 242 buses on 20 different lines - 75 percent of the total bus service between Incheon and Seoul.

Samwha, the union said, offered to raise the current 4,727 won hourly wage for drivers by just 3.5 percent instead of the 20 percent requested by the union. The union said it asked the company to increase the hourly wage to 5,700 won but Samwha offered just 4,845 won per hour and a reduction of working hours from 21 to 18 hours per day.

The company, meanwhile, said that its offer was fair because the average annual salary of its drivers was about 33 million won, which it said was 10 percent higher than salaries at other Incheon bus companies.

Samwha added that it would consider shutting down its entire Incheon-based operations if drivers don’t return to work.

“There is no doubt that we offer the best wages,” said Kim Jin-hyeon, a Samwha executive...

In July, the union went on strike after a dispute over delayed payments of drivers’ wages and to demand better working conditions.

The strike came to an end after two days when Samwha agreed to pay the delayed wages and promised to continue negotiations on other issues. The union said it had negotiated with the company nine times since Aug. 12 but failed to agree on any issue...

http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/html/620/2942620.html?cloc=joongangdaily|home|newslist1

Comment:

1. "Samwha offered 4,845 won (3 Euro/USD 4.09) per hour..." That's just a provocation!!
2. "Samwha offered... a reduction of working hours from 21 to 18 hours per day" What a f*cking bullshit? Nobody can work 21 resp. 18 hours a day!!

But possibly JoongAng Ilbo made a mistake(??) and wanted to write 'from 12 hours to 8 hours per day'... But with the reduction of the working hours there will be also a reduction of the payment! So the workers demand should be: "Reduction in working hours by full compensatory wage increases!!"

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