The Seoul city bus union claimed that "the city of Seoul and the management are using the issue of ordinary wages to lead this year's wage and collective bargaining negotiations into chaos."
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) Seoul City Bus Workers' Union held a protest rally condemning the city of Seoul in front of the Seoul City Hall's Seosomun Annex on the 14th and made this statement.
The rally was attended by Park Jeom-gon, Chairperson of the Seoul City Bus Union, along with over 100 participants.
Chairperson Park said, "The city of Seoul and employers are ignoring the poor conditions of workers and telling them to abandon the revaluation of ordinary wages based on the Supreme Court's decision," adding, "Furthermore, they are cunningly distorting the union's demands by making it seem like we are demanding a wage increase of 25%, thus causing conflict between the citizens of Seoul and bus workers."
The Seoul city bus management and labor have been negotiating related to this year's wage and collective bargaining agreement from December of last year to April of this year, but they have not reached any substantial agreement. During this process, the union applied for mediation from the Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission, and even during the mediation period, the management and labor could not come up with a consensus. As a result, the Seoul city bus labor has secured the right to strike.
The Seoul city bus management and labor have differing opinions regarding the calculation of ordinary wages.
The union argues that it is appropriate to include bonuses in ordinary wages according to the Supreme Court precedent established last December. On the other hand, the city of Seoul and the management are in a position that it is difficult to accept the union's demands, as they ultimately require a wage increase of more than 20% based on aggregates.
Yu Jae-ho, Assistant Director of the Seoul City Bus Union, noted that "the management insists that they cannot engage in negotiations unless they either remove the bonus regulations from the collective agreement or amend it in a way that it no longer counts as an ordinary wage."
The Seoul city bus union plans to hold a strike kick-off ceremony at the Seoul Traffic Center in Songpa District on the 26th. Earlier, the higher organization of the Seoul city bus union, the Korean Automobile Workers' Federation, announced that the 22 regional affiliated unions had simultaneously applied for mediation related to wage negotiations on the 12th, and if a consensus is not reached, they will begin a nationwide simultaneous strike starting from the first bus on the 28th.