South Korean railroad strike of 2006

The South Korean railroad strike of 2006 was a four-day walkout by members of the Korean Railway Workers' Union employed by the Korean National Railroad. It lasted from March 1 to March 4, when the union called a halt to the strike after most of the workers voluntarily returned to work. The number of striking workers fluctuated throughout the strike, but reached over 16,000 workers at its peak. During the strike, Korail's passenger service was decreased by 60%, on both national and Seoul Subway lines. Freight service was also greatly reduced. The economic impact the four-day strike had on KORAIL, the estimated loss was 29.9 billion won which is $26,580,869.77 in USD. The NLR which stands for National Labor Relations Commissions decided to bring the labor dispute to arbitration on March 15 as both sides failed to come to an agreement or solution. Such strike created a sense of loss of trust between KORAIL and the citizens of South Korea because they were not able to help solve the solution prior to the strike. However, the union workers were met with pressure by both the KORAIL and police because the government was going to give out serious punishments to the union workers due to the effect it had on the economy. The police arrested about 411 strikers across the county and out of them only 401 were released with a warning. However, the remaining ten were indicted on interfering in the execution of duty. The arrest of the union workers affected the morale of the strike because 50% of the workers return to work the following day.

The principal issue, which was not resolved during the strike, was Korail's replacement of regular long-term positions with short-term contract positions. The strike was declared illegal by the government after emergency arbitration was imposed, and at least 411 strikers were arrested. 10 of those were indicted on charges of "interference with execution of duty," but the rest were released.[1] The strike only lasted four days as the result of disgruntled citizens who did not support the strike for it to gain traction or popularity. The demands the union strikers asked for did not help the rail worker welfare as the demands were more about re-instating laid-off workers and making temporary employment to regular employment. The demands created a discussion between workers, stating why they should care for someone who has only worked for two years for KTX, while they have been working for ten years on other trains. The end of the four day strike gave the upper hand to KORAIL as they were given the opportunity to dish out any punishment through legal proceedings against its unionized workers who participated in the strike. 2000 union workers were also suspended by Korail during the incident. In addition, KORAIL is handing out severe disciplinary measures for the strike leaders, but heed the warnings of laying-off workers as it can further escalate the disgruntled citizens as it can further disrupt transportation problems. On the other hand, KORAIL did not scurry away from this problem without facing backlash on how they could’ve prevented this or created a failsafe in case of a strike. The strike could have been avoided all together as they were warned by the union that a strike would occur if changes were not done.

The female KTX attendants' union, whose members are not employed by Korail but by a subcontractor, continued their walkout.