By Nam Hyun-woo
Subway workers plan to join striking rail workers' today, causing more inconvenience for commuters in the metropolitan area.
In a show of solidarity with the unionized workers of the Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL), the unions of Seoul Metro, which runs Seoul's subway lines 1 to 4 along with KORAIL, said they will go on strike as well.
Some 7,900 members of the Seoul Subway Labor Union and Seoul Metro Subway Labor Union — the first- and second-largest unions of Seoul Metro — will launch an all-out walkout today.
Among the unionized workers, some 2,000 are crewmembers and 4,200 are technicians and engineers, but subway services will not likely be affected immediately.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) announced Tuesday that it would provide 8,323 temporary substitute workers, 90 percent of the normal number, starting Wednesday and subway services would be provided as usual.
However, if the two subway unions' strike continues longer than 8 days, the service will be disrupted.
"The city government will do whatever it takes to increase substitute transport capability. Also the operation status of those subways will be updated through SMG websites and SNS, in order to ease any inconvenience," an official said.
As thousands of unionized workers of KORAIL continued their strike for a ninth day, KTX high-speed train operations were also reduced to 88 percent, Tuesday.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it will try to maintain this operation rate.
"We are currently preparing long-term plans in case of further operation reductions," said an official at the ministry's emergency task force. "Further reduction may be inevitable given the current situation."
If the KORAIL unionists' walkout continues until Dec. 23, the ministry may have to consider a further service reduction, down to some 60 percent.
"The reduction was necessary since allocating temporary substitutes to fill the manpower vacuum has its limits," he said.
As of Tuesday, other long-distance services of KORAIL via slower Saemaeul and Mugunghwa trains were crippled, down to some 58 percent of the normal operation rate. Only 35.8 percent of cargo trains were operating.
The KORAIL unionists staged the walkout to protest the company's decision to set up an affiliate which will run a new bullet train service separately.
Meanwhile, following a Seoul court's issuance of arrest warrants for six unionized rail workers Monday for refusing summons for questioning over the ongoing strike, police raided the workers' office near Yongsan Station.
According to police, it sent 30 investigators to the office and seized hard drives and documents. KORAIL has filed a complaint against 190 union members for instigating the "illegal" walkout.
As KORAIL — which co-operates lines 1, 3 and 4 with Seoul Metro — faces setbacks also in running the subway lines, Seoul Metro stretched its services Monday to meet the normal operation level of line 3.
Line 1 covers Mt. Soyo to the north through central Seoul to Incheon and Onyang. Line 4 covers Nowon to Oido.
Subway workers plan to join striking rail workers' today, causing more inconvenience for commuters in the metropolitan area.
In a show of solidarity with the unionized workers of the Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL), the unions of Seoul Metro, which runs Seoul's subway lines 1 to 4 along with KORAIL, said they will go on strike as well.
Some 7,900 members of the Seoul Subway Labor Union and Seoul Metro Subway Labor Union — the first- and second-largest unions of Seoul Metro — will launch an all-out walkout today.
Among the unionized workers, some 2,000 are crewmembers and 4,200 are technicians and engineers, but subway services will not likely be affected immediately.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) announced Tuesday that it would provide 8,323 temporary substitute workers, 90 percent of the normal number, starting Wednesday and subway services would be provided as usual.
However, if the two subway unions' strike continues longer than 8 days, the service will be disrupted.
"The city government will do whatever it takes to increase substitute transport capability. Also the operation status of those subways will be updated through SMG websites and SNS, in order to ease any inconvenience," an official said.
As thousands of unionized workers of KORAIL continued their strike for a ninth day, KTX high-speed train operations were also reduced to 88 percent, Tuesday.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it will try to maintain this operation rate.
"We are currently preparing long-term plans in case of further operation reductions," said an official at the ministry's emergency task force. "Further reduction may be inevitable given the current situation."
If the KORAIL unionists' walkout continues until Dec. 23, the ministry may have to consider a further service reduction, down to some 60 percent.
"The reduction was necessary since allocating temporary substitutes to fill the manpower vacuum has its limits," he said.
As of Tuesday, other long-distance services of KORAIL via slower Saemaeul and Mugunghwa trains were crippled, down to some 58 percent of the normal operation rate. Only 35.8 percent of cargo trains were operating.
The KORAIL unionists staged the walkout to protest the company's decision to set up an affiliate which will run a new bullet train service separately.
Meanwhile, following a Seoul court's issuance of arrest warrants for six unionized rail workers Monday for refusing summons for questioning over the ongoing strike, police raided the workers' office near Yongsan Station.
According to police, it sent 30 investigators to the office and seized hard drives and documents. KORAIL has filed a complaint against 190 union members for instigating the "illegal" walkout.
As KORAIL — which co-operates lines 1, 3 and 4 with Seoul Metro — faces setbacks also in running the subway lines, Seoul Metro stretched its services Monday to meet the normal operation level of line 3.
Line 1 covers Mt. Soyo to the north through central Seoul to Incheon and Onyang. Line 4 covers Nowon to Oido.
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