Seoul subway strike to begin Friday morning as talks collapse

Passengers wait for a subway train on a platform at Seoul Station, Thursday. Yonhap

Seoul Metro workers on subway lines 1 through 8 will launch a full strike starting with Friday’s first trains, a move that may disrupt morning commutes across the capital after overnight talks between the main union and management collapsed.

The Seoul Transit Corporation Labor Union, representing more than 57 percent of all employees, announced around 3:30 a.m. that final talks with management had collapsed.

Labor and management held last-minute negotiations on wages and collective bargaining at the company’s headquarters in Seongdong District on Thursday afternoon, but negotiations were suspended after about 40 minutes.

The two sides continued working-level talks throughout the night, yet failed to narrow their differences and were unable to resume the main negotiation, leading to the collapse of the talks.

Separate negotiations between the company and the two smaller unions are still underway.

As of July this year, the main union accounted for 57.4 percent of unionized workers, followed by the No. 2 union at 16.4 percent and the No. 3 union at 12.6 percent.