The nation's two largest umbrella unions threatened to strike, Wednesday, should the government allow multiple unions in a single workplace and deprive full-time unionists of their wages.

The leaders of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions met Wednesday for the first time in five years, issuing a joint statement that carried the threat of a general strike. The unionists requested to hold talks involving leaders of the government, businessmen and labor circles next month. Non-permanent workers, privatization of public sectors and others should be included in the main agenda, the unions said.

The two conducted a joint general strike in 1997 against the Labor Law Revision.

bjs@koreatimes.co.kr