By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Thousands of truck drivers refused to return to work for the third straight day, worsening freight transport disruptions and triggering enormous export losses.
About 13,000 truckers turned off their engines, pushing down daily container traffic to about 25 percent of normal operations in Busan and other major seaports across the nation.
On top of the truckers’ strike, cement mixer drivers and other construction-related workers are joining Monday’s general strike threatened by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), dealing a severe blow to President Lee Myung-bak who is already facing major challenges from a series of mass protests and labor strikes.
Government officials were talking with the truckers’ union, but they have yet to produce an agreement due to complicated wage and freight rate systems.
Truckers are contracted to pay commissions to truck companies and brokers that connect these truck drivers with Samsung Electronics and other major companies for cargo works.
Besides soaring diesel prices, truck drivers are bleeding from the charges they have to pay to win cargo works, with the commissions estimated at up to 40 percent of their freight rates.
To tackle this complex brokering system, the government and ruling Grand National Party are calling for units of top conglomerates to ``share the burden.’’ At a meeting between senior officials from the government and GNP, they said they would form a taskforce to come up with more fundamental countermeasures.
Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Minister Chung Jong-hwan said Sunday, ``The situation is very difficult. Freight owners (or big companies) should raise freight rates to share the burden.’’
Truck drivers said they will not stop striking until the government lowers soaring gasoline prices and persuades their employers to increase wages. The strike is causing about 130 billion won ($123 million) in daily export losses, compared with 40 billion won of daily losses in 2003 when cargo truckers staged a two-week strike, according to the Korea International Trade Association.
The strike has caused a series of manufacturing suspensions across the country. LG Electronics, the world’s fourth-largest mobile phone maker, was forced to cease product shipments from its factory in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. Major steel companies also had to cease shipments. Moreover, the strike is expected to deal a blow to cement producers.
``We will walk out like the baseball batting order goes; first batter is the Korea Cargo Transport Workers’ Union, the second batter is constructors and machinery workers followed by the metal workers’ union and railway workers’ union,’’ said KCTU President Lee Seok-haeng.
The government plans to hold a series of talks with truck drivers and other union leaders to keep strikes from spreading further to other industries.