發布日期:2023-01-26 18:25:13
Unionized financial workers join a rally in central Seoul on Sept. 16 as the Korean Financial Industry Union goes on a one-day general strike demanding a wage hike. Yonhap
Some 13,000 unionized financial workers held a large-scale rally in central Seoul on Friday, calling for a wage hike and a 4.5-day workweek as the nationwide financial industry union went on a one-day general strike.
The Korean Financial Industry Union (KFIU) affiliated with the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, one of the country's two umbrella unions, launched a single-day general walkout on the day, its first strike in six years.
The trade union, covering South Korea's mainstream private and state banks and other financial institutions, said some 100,000 workers from around 7,000 workplaces nationwide were to join the strike.
They demand a 5.2 percent wage hike, the pilot implementation of a 4.5-day workweek and other welfare benefits.
On Friday morning, some 13,000 members and officials of the KFIU, financial workers and civic and labor activists gathered together at Gwanghwamun Square to make their voices heard.
"We should safeguard the common good of financial services against employers who are dying to reduce the number of stores and employees, and increase dividends to stockholders," Park Hong-bae, KFIU chairman, said during the rally.
The strikers planned to launch a street march toward the presidential office in Yongsan following the rally.
The morning demonstration caused heavy traffic jams around Gwanghwamun Square, slowing down the traveling speed of vehicles around the area to as low as 12 kph as of 10 a.m.
The union has said it will launch another general strike on Sept. 30. (Yonhap)