Thousands protest in South Korea in support of truckers

SEOUL

Thousands of demonstrators representing organized labor marched in South Korea’s capital on Nov. 3 denouncing government attempts to force thousands of striking truckers back to work after they walked out in a dispute over the price of freight.

The marchers, mostly members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, accused President Yoon Suk Yeol’s conservative government of labor oppression and ignoring what they described as the truckers’ harsh work conditions and financial struggles, worsened further by rising fuel costs.

The government last week issued an order for some 2,500 drivers of cement trucks to return to work, saying that their walkout is rattling the national economy.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many truckers returned to their jobs following the order as their union vowed to continue the strike.

Thousands of members of the Cargo Truckers Solidarity union have been striking for two weeks, calling for the government to make permanent a minimum freight rate system that is to expire at the end of 2022.

Container traffic at ports recovered to 81 percent of normal levels as of Dec. 3, after dropping to around just 20 percent earlier last week.

More than 5,000 truckers were actively participating in the strike on Saturday.

The Nov. 29 order marked the first time a South Korean government exercised its controversial powers under a law revised in 2004 to force truckers back to their jobs.

The strike’s impact has so far been mostly limited to domestic industries and there has been no immediate reports of major disruptions to export industries such as semiconductors.