Police Set to End Ssangyong Motor Strike

Riot police gathered Monday morning around the assembly plant of Ssangyong Motor in Pyeongtaek where about 1,000 unionized workers had been staging strikes over the past two months in their first court-approved action.

"To support the court's order and prevent a bloody clash from taking place, police are ready to move into the plant," Cho Hyeon-oh, head of the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency, was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency.

Fears are mounting that the police move will cause a clash with the striking workers at the plant where thinners and other inflammable materials are stacked up to thrash the possible police intrusion.

Production at Ssangyong, which has been under bankruptcy protection since February, was suspended May 21 as some laid-off workers refused the company's job-cut plan and holed themselves inside the plant in Pyeongtaek, about 70km south of Seoul.

Ssangyong won permission to enter bankruptcy protection in return for conducting restructuring that calls for 36 percent of its workforce, or 2,646 employees, to be cut. Since then, some 1,670 workers have left the company through voluntary retirement, while the remaining 976 workers have gone on strike.

With no end to the strike in sight, Ssangyong asked the court to order police to help evict the striking workers. The request was approved early this month.

Last week, police took preparatory steps to move into the plant, using forklifts to remove shipping containers and other barriers from the plant's four major gates.

In the first six months of this year, Ssangyong's auto sales plunged 73.9 percent from the same period last year to 13,020 units.