Lee calls for tough action on rail strike

President Lee Myung-bak on Saturday urged stern action against an ongoing strike by workers at a state-run rail company, which has crippled cargo transportation nationwide.

About 16,000 Korea Railroad Corp. union members walked out of their jobs Thursday over wages, working conditions and dismissed employees.

"There must not be a convenient compromise this time," Lee said during a workshop attended by government ministers and more than 100 heads of public organizations.

"The walkout by unionized workers of public corporations, who are guaranteed lifetime job security, cannot be understood by the people at a time when hundreds of thousands of young people are struggling to land jobs."

About 16,000 of the 24,000-strong KORAIL union have taken part in the strike, according to union officials.

Freight trains were operating at around 30 percent of their normal capacity on the fourth day of the strike. Their operation rate has been gradually improving from 5 percent on Thursday, 8.7 percent on Friday and 12.6 percent on Saturday.

The operation rate of major passenger trains, relatively unaffected last week, dropped to around 60 percent yesterday as KORAIL transferred some drivers to cargo trains.

The increased cargo train operations enlivened major logistics centers such as the Uiwang Inland Container Depot in Gyeonggi Province and cargo centers in Busan, Ulsan and other areas.

Subway trains in the Seoul metropolitan area, KTX bullet trains and other commuter trains operated as normal.

KORAIL said the financial loss incurred by the stoppage of cargo trains was 624 million won ($527,918) on the first day of the walkout and 775 million won on the second day.

Prosecutors said they are investigating the strike, acting on complaints filed by KORAIL last week against 182 union leaders.

The strike is the third this year following the first in September and another earlier this month.

Meanwhile, some 12,000 public-sector workers belonging to the country's two umbrella labor groups gathered Saturday in front of the government complex in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, lambasting the government's labor policies.

The members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions argued that under the name of "advancing public organizations," the government tried to privatize public corporations and research institutes in a scheme to offset fiscal deficits incurred by tax cuts for the wealthy.