South Korean truckers’ strike and threats to the country’s automotive industry

According to the International Economic Group of the Fars News Agency, quoted by Sky News, South Korean truck drivers on Thursday began their second major strike in less than 6 months, which threatens to disrupt the work of manufacturing industries and the supply of fuel for sectors including automobiles. And petrochemicals is the tenth largest economy in the world.

As fuel prices soar in South Korea, truckers are calling on the government to make the minimum wage, known as the “safe transport rate,” which expires at the end of the year, a permanent system, and trucker benefits in other sectors, including oil tankers. also increase.

The South Korean government said the program would extend truck driver wages for three years, but rejected other demands from the truckers’ union.

Last June, an eight-day peaceful strike by truck drivers in South Korea delayed the shipment of goods to the country, causing more than $1.2 billion in damage to South Korea’s manufacturing sector. Both sides have given points in favor of the other side, it ended.

The South Korean Truckers Union is responsible for organizing the strike by organizing 16 rallies across the country starting this Thursday morning; Among the gathering in Ulsan port, the location of the main factory of Hyundai Motor (a Korean automobile company).

The union estimated that about 22,000 people took part in the rallies, while South Korea’s transport ministry said that about 9,600 people took part in the rallies and that there were no clashes with police, who are keeping the situation under control. has not occurred

As the noisy rally began at a transportation hub in Uyewang, a transportation hub 25 kilometers south of Seoul, hundreds of truck drivers marched around the rally site, carrying banners and placards reading “Unite, Fight” and the slogan “When we stand, the world stands” were closed, and a large number of South Korean police forces were stationed in this place.

In Busan, South Korea’s largest port, security personnel and buses lined the main roads.

The Solidarity Union of Truckers, the main organizer of this event, warned that the strike could stop the supply of oil in large refineries and transportation in ports and large factories.

The union said nearly all of its 25,000 members, about 6 percent of the nation’s truck drivers, would participate in the strike, with an unspecified number of non-union members joining them.

“We have no choice but to stop all logistics services in Korea,” said Lee Bong-joo, head of the union, on Thursday.

Earlier this week, South Korea’s Transport Minister Won Hye-ryong said that the safe transport rate system has not been proven to increase the safety of truck drivers, but only increases their income, which is why the government has refused to expand the program. Is.

The union has called on the South Korean government to ensure that large companies are held accountable for violating the minimum wage law.

South Korean Prime Minister Han Deok-soo said: If the truckers’ union strike continues, it will impose a great burden not only on key industries, but also on people’s livelihoods and the national economy.

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