Unionized workers at Korea Post hold a protest in front of a post office in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap
By Lee Kyung-min
A plan to launch a nationwide strike Saturday by unionized postal delivery workers under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) has been delayed, after the management and labor at the Korea Post (KP) reached an agreement, officials said Friday.
The last-minute breakthrough largely quells concerns of another logistics crisis similar to the recent truckers' strike that resulted in 2 trillion won ($ 1.5 billion won) in losses in the country's economic activities.
"We reached an agreement that a prolonged strike would hurt the economy and lead to consumer inconveniences," KP said in a statement. "Deliveries will be processed Saturday without any disruptions."
The two sides reaffirmed that a 3-percent increase in wages this year should be followed by efforts to seek a government budget sufficient to earmark the same amount of wage increase next year.
"We express deep regret for causing anxiety about a possible logistics crisis. We will try our best to ensure the safe delivery of not only shipment orders but also happiness to the public," it added.
An all-out strike was set to start Saturday, as indicated in the endorsement of the collective action by approximately 1,500 KP workers in Incheon, Busan, Daejeon, Gwangju, Jeju, South Jeolla and South Gyeongsang provinces. They took issue mostly with their employer's unilateral contract terms that enable easy layoffs and wage cuts.
"We have no choice but to reject all contract terms that only treat us as slaves," the unionized KP workers in Jeju said in a statement, Thursday. "The current contract serves no purpose other than to destroy years of mutual trust and negotiations between workers and the management."
KP had maintained that the contract terms were needed to better adjust its management strategies in the event of a rapid loss in delivery orders, stressing that any attempt to thwart delivery schedules would be dealt with sternly under the law.
"We will seek mutually agreeable terms as soon as possible through continued communication with the unionized workers, but illegal activities will not be tolerated," KP said early Friday.
The move by the unionized workers at the state-run organization had been feared to add to the ongoing partial strike organized by workers at CJ Logistics, an affiliate of CJ CheilJedang, a local food conglomerate.
The CJ workers first held a rally, May 23, and have since continued the weekly protest every Monday. They are mainly irked by employers refusing to draft a standardized employment contract, which makes it easier to terminate their existing contracts.
