ED Find negotiated solution
Time to resume dialogue with striking truckers
Unionized truck drivers staged the second day of their strike Wednesday, demanding wage hikes. Some 9,000 truckers, or 40 percent of the 22,000 members of the Cargo Truckers Solidarity affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) launched the strike Tuesday morning.
The strike has suspended the transportation of cement from a logistics center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, around the Seoul metropolitan area. The delivery of cement from major plants in North Chungcheong and Gangwon provinces has also been stalled. Police arrested 15 unionized truckers for allegedly blocking the passage of vehicles at the Icheon factory of HiteJinro, a maker of soju and beer.
The strike, if prolonged, will likely deal a severe blow to many domestic businesses producing goods such as steel, liquor, tires, components and materials. We urge both the union and the government to hold a dialogue to find a solution and minimize any possible fallout from the collective action. Yet, regrettably, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, in charge of the dispute, has failed to avoid the work stoppage.
The truckers are staging the strike amid conflicts with the government over the minimum freight rate system designed to ensure truckers' safe driving and proper wages. The current system, adopted temporarily in January 2020 for a three-year period, will cease to exist in December.
The unionists are demanding the rate system be extended and applied further to all types of cargo vehicles. They complain of the growing financial pinch prompted by soaring diesel prices amid the drawn-out Russia-Ukraine war. The transport ministry has taken flak for having failed to properly handle the case even though the truckers threatened to go on strike May 23. The two sides held negotiations belatedly June 2, but failed to narrow their differences.
Truckers went on strike last November for similar reasons. Yet the ministry has so far done little to offer any solutions. Given this, the ministry deserves criticism for having taken a lukewarm attitude toward the issue. It should get the blame for its inconsistent and unprincipled stance in dealing with the problem. It is even refusing to acknowledge the truckers' organization as a labor union, describing its members as “atypical workers.” The ministry has taken a hardline stance since the May 10 inauguration of the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol administration, making it harder to find a solution through dialogue with the truckers.
President Yoon vowed to take stern action against the striking truckers for their possible illegal acts. Yet such a hardline approach cannot work. The government should resume dialogue with the truckers immediately to seek a proper solution to the dispute. The truckers, for their part, must refrain from putting forward excessive demands, given the aggravating economic conditions amid runaway inflation and global supply chain disruptions.