hankyoreh

A nationwide strike by the Korea Cargo Workers Union virtually ended on June 19, as the industrial action entered into its seventh straight day.

On the afternoon of the same day at the fifth round of negotiations held at a maritime office in Busan, the KCWU and the Container Transport Companies Association reached an agreement to accept a government’s compromise to raise transport fees by 19 percent. The CTCA, which consists of 14 shippers including Korea Express, Hyundai Logistics and Hanjin, accounts for 60 percent of domestic container deliveries.

The Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs said the KCWU would withdraw its nationwide refusal to move freight from June 20 and start negotiating drivers’ fees at workplaces. As of noon on the same day, the ministry said a total of 11,386 cargo truck drivers were participating in the strike, down 15.6 percent from June 16 when 13,496 drivers joined the strike. On the morning of the same day, negotiations over drivers’ fees at some workplaces were settled, allowing 2,110 drivers to return to work.

In addition, the KCWU accepted the government’s proposal to make a standardized transportation rate law by 2009, “after conducting a trial operation of it.” The standardized transportation rate was a key demand by the striking truckers to improve relations between them and big cargo companies as well as the shippers. The government pledged to make a decision on whether to introduce penalties that could enforce the proposal after the trial operation. During the strike, the KCWU had demanded the government “legalize the standardized transportation rate and clarify penalties by the end of this year.”

Under the system of standardized transportation rates, a committee represented by the government, cargo owners, shippers and truck drivers, would regularly set minimum freight rates for drivers, reflecting oil prices and living costs.

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