South Korean cargo carriers have voted this Friday in favor of ending the strike that began on November 24 and which has left the country in check after the South Korean government gave a new order for them to return to their posts. of work.
After learning of the new order, the Cargo Truckers Solidarity Union decided to hold a vote that resulted in almost 62 percent of votes in favor of ending the stoppage. Previously, the union section of the Busan port, one of the most important in the country, had already decided to suspend the strike without a vote.
The orders of the South Korean government, which has been forced to resort to this regulation for the first time since the promulgation of the corresponding law in 2004, have had the support of the opposition Democratic Party.
However, and according to the official Yonhap news agency, some truckers have lamented the existence of a regulation that they consider unconstitutional: the law prohibits striking without justified reasons, but it never clarifies what reasons it could accept as valid.
In fact, labor associations in the country have asked the International Labor Organization (ILO) to review whether the government order violates the basic rights of employees. The Ministry of Employment and Labor has confirmed that the United Nations agency sent a letter on behalf of Corinne Vargha, its director of international labor standards, requesting that the South Korean government clarify its position on the dispute.
The second transport strike in less than six months, after the one declared by the cement transport truckers, has cost the South Korean government some 2.6 billion dollars (about 2.4 billion euros).
The conveners demanded an indefinite extension of the so-called Freight Rate System for Safe Cargo Transportation, which guarantees minimum wages, crucial for security and financial stability in the face of rising fuel prices.
The government announced last month that it would extend the system for another three years, beyond its scheduled expiration at the end of this year, but truckers demanded instead that the government make the system permanent and expand it to cover not just truckers who deliver cargo and cement, but also drivers from other sectors such as oil, chemicals, steel carriers or parcels.
