General Strike Cooled Down

The general strike led by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) for past three days has subsided after the settlement of the Korean Air Union yesterday, still leaving Asiana Airlines, some hospitals, and small and medium-sized enterprises on strike.

However, concerning the legal punishment of the unionist leaders who engineered the illegal strikes, the aftershocks seem to continue on for a while.

The Present Condition of the Strike: The Ministry of Labor announced yesterday that the totality of the general strike participants had shrunk to 10,192 unionists of the 31 enterprises, which was 6300 people reduced from the previous day (KCTU`s count was somewhat different from that of the Ministry: 30,346 of 64 enterprises).

Korean Air, Ewha Womans University Hospital, and the National Health Insurance Corporation were operating normally yesterday after they settled down the strike. The flights of Korean Air were almost restored to the normal schedule since yesterday afternoon.

By the afternoon yesterday, four hospitals, including Seoul National University Hospital, Chungbuk University Hospital, Chonbuk University Hospital, and Chonnam University Hospital, are still on strike. Pusan Kyungsang College Hospital, which had been on strike yesterday morning, settled the negotiation in the afternoon of the day. And Hanyang University and Kosin University Hospital respectively agreed on their settlement early in the morning yesterday and withdrew from the strike.

Asiana Airlines resumed the negotiation between the employees at 3:00 yesterday and the management is expected to reach an agreement soon under the influence of the settlement of Korean Air.

Positions of the government and KCTU: KCTU said at the press conference yesterday that they welcome the settlement of the Korean Air strike without the mobilization of the police power. KCTU added that they will make an effort to settle down the negotiations of other enterprises however, if the government mobilizes the police power to suppress the strike, they will return to the general strike.

KCTU warned the government that, if the government suppressed the leaders of the unionists, all the union members of the umbrella union KCTU would go on strike, all regional headquarters would start the overnight demonstrations, and KCTU would hold mass rallies in 10 places of the nation, including Daehak-ro, Seoul.

Meanwhile, the Public Prosecution requested yesterday the arrest warrants for three union leaders including Choi Sun-Im, the union leader of the Seoul National University Hospital. The Public Prosecutions Office has already received the warrants for the arrest of the union leaders of the Korean Air pilots. The legal punishment of the union leaders seems to be an issue in the process of negotiations.

jinhup@donga.com