Korail to take actions against workers after strike

Trucks bustle about the Uiwang Inland Container Depot in Gyeonggi after the Korean Railway Workers’ Union called off its eight-day strike yesterday. [NEWSIS]

Korail said yesterday that it will seek strong disciplinary measures against all Korean Railway Workers’ Union members who participated in a strike that put the brakes on train operations for eight days.

The union resumed work yesterday at 9 a.m., and train operations - both passenger and cargo - have been normalized.

“The union’s strike caused a loss of 9.1 billion won [$7.9 million] to Korail,” Korail CEO Huh Joon-young said.

Huh said Korail would file both civil and criminal suits against striking union members.

The 11,700 striking unionists will be sorted into strike leaders and strike participants, he said, and then disciplined appropriately.

A senior Korail official said it’s fortunate that the unionists returned to work, but Korail will not drop complaints filed with police on Nov. 27.

“There’s no guarantee that unionists will not stage another strike in the future,” the official said.

Korail asked police to investigate 188 striking railway workers, and police began searching for them after obtaining detention warrants.

“Korail wants to use this opportunity to wipe out the bad practices used by unionists in the past,” the senior Korail official said. “To make this happen, we have to start from the very beginning to create a new labor-management culture.”

Prosecutors shared Korail’s view.

They will continue looking for and investigating unionists who engaged in the illegal strike, prosecutors said.

After a court issued arrest warrants on Wednesday, police formed a special team whose main task was to serve the warrants. Investigators are looking for ways to arrest key union officials, including union head Kim Ki-tae, who is accused of masterminding the work stoppage.

Police from the Daejeon Dongbu Precinct arrested a Daejeon chapter senior union official surnamed Jeon at his house yesterday morning after a court issued an arrest warrant for him on Thursday. “Jeon is one of the unionists Korail filed complaints about on Nov. 27,” a Daejeon Dongbu police officer said. “Prosecutors asked Jeon to appear for questioning three times, and he never showed up. That’s why he was arrested.”

The Korean Railway Workers’ Union said it would use any means to fight Korail management because the organization is calling the strike illegal. When the union announced on Thursday that it is calling off the strike, union head Kim Ki-tae warned that if negotiations with management don’t go well, the union will begin another strike.

The union still wants Korail to reverse its decision to break a collective bargaining agreement with the union, among other demands.

Meanwhile, Chung Jong-hwan, the minister of land, transportation and maritime affairs, told reporters yesterday that the railway union’s strike brought focused attention to reforming the country’s railway system.

Chung said the government will try to tamp down frequent strikes and make Korail more competitive to bring it into the black.

“The government is mulling cutting about 5,000 Korail workers, restructuring affiliate companies and outsourcing simple tasks,” Chung said.

“Whether or not to improve the country’s railway competitiveness is no longer an option. Labor, management and politics need to put their heads together to change the problem fundamentally.”

Chung said the government estimates Korail will see 600 billion won in losses this year.

Its accumulated deficit is expected to pass 2 trillion won ($1.7 billion) this year.

By Kim Mi-ju, Chang Chung-hoon [mijukim@joongang.co.kr]