Truckers’ Strike Taking Toll on Lower-income Earners

The effects of the nationwide strike by the Korea Cargo Transport Workers Union are starting to weigh more heavily on the economy, especially on lower-income workers.

On the sixth day of the strike yesterday, livestock farmers had a hard time securing animal feed and farmers and fishermen struggled to transport their products to markets in time. Gas stations were running low on fuel supplies and grocery stores suffered from shortages of fruit, vegetables and daily necessities.

○ Rotting Japanese apricots

An orchard farmer who grows Japanese apricots in a small town in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, heaved a sigh, saying, “I have to send my fruit as soon as possible, but I can’t do it because of the truckers’ strike. The strike is causing me huge losses.”

“Trucking companies refuse to haul Japanese apricots because there are no trucks. Apricots are being returned due to expiring shelf life.”

The farmer said he receives some 15 tons in Internet orders every year, but that he has no choice but to throw away three to four tons of Japanese apricots this year.

Gwangyang is the nation’s largest producer of Japanese apricots with annual output of 7,500 tons. In the peak harvest season, 30 to 40 tons of the fruit are normally sent to markets a day. The strike, however, has reduced that figure to less than 10 tons.

On Jeju Island, flatfish farms have been hit hard due to a lack of feed. Some 300 such farms there consume almost 360 tons of feed a day. With only three or four days worth of feed at every fish farm, however, a prolonged walkout will result in a massive culling of flatfish.

Fishermen started shipping feed by borrowing private trucks from Monday. They managed to send 66 tons of flatfish daily to markets at home and abroad, down by 15 to 20 tons.

“Fishermen are jittery over the rumor that feed suppliers are almost out of stock,” said one fish farmer. “We’ve reduced the amount of feed to a third, but if the strike continues, fish farms will be destroyed.”

At the island’s townships of Gujwa and Jocheon, 500 tons of garlic are languishing in warehouses. Farmers said they are worried over losses from delayed shipments.

Some 180 livestock farms in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, are also in danger of getting cut off from feed supply.

○ Grocery stores and logistics firms also in pain

A supermarket cooperative association in Daejeon that supplies 1,050 supermarkets began taking matters into its own hands Monday. It shipped goods from manufacturers and distributed them to individual supermarkets using five of the association’s own trucks.

Five trucks are not enough, however. Manufactured goods are out of stock, so the association has mainly provided liquor, which is in large supply.

“Our collective logistics center is running out of manufactured goods,” the association said. “But we cannot go out to buy goods in short supply due to high transportation costs.”

A source at an association branch said, “Now we have a little problem though we secured enough commodities 10 days before the walkout. A protracted strike will cause a shortage of goods.”

One cargo transport company in the southern city of Gwangju said it suffered a 30-percent loss in sales. Normally, the company operates 10 trucks that transport 11 tons a day, but has only one truck running since drivers are reluctant to work.

“We don’t take orders for frozen food and fruit since their freshness is critical,” said the company’s president.

Another cargo company based in a high-tech district of the city had shipped products manufactured at Samsung Electronics’ Gwangju plant to other metropolitan areas. Now, however, its empty trucks go to Seoul and return home loading only individual shipments.

“It’s difficult to pay salaries,” said one employee. “I sympathize with members of the truckers’ union, but we’re in deep trouble.”