Posted on: Thursday, June 14, 2001

South Korea labor strike loses some steam

Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea — A three-day-old nationwide strike by thousands of aviation, chemical and metal workers lost much of its strength yesterday, a day after pilots at the nation's largest airline resolved disputes with management.

The all-Korean pilots' union at Korean Air ended two days of protests late yesterday after compromising over key disputes, including a demand to reduce the number of foreign pilots at the company. The pilots withdrew a request for an increase in salaries.

The development raised hope among government and industry officials that this week's labor protests, called by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, could end soon.

The government said 8,500 workers were on strike at 28 work sites yesterday, a nearly 50 percent reduction from the day before.

Korean Air has 1,650 pilots, of whom 1,400 are Korean and 250 are foreigners. Korean pilots claim that their annual pay is 30 percent below their foreign counterparts.

Despite the end of protests by its pilots, Korean Air had to cancel its flights by more than half for a third straight day today, because it is required by law to give pilots at least 12 hours of rest before assigning them to a flight.

The nation's second airline, Asiana Airlines, remained strikebound as management and its nonpilot union failed to resolve differences about pay increases. The two sides are still negotiating.

Assisted by nonunionized ground crews and flight attendants, however, Asiana continued to fly all of its scheduled international flights today. The airlines domestic flights were curtailed by 30 percent.

Yesterday, 3,200 nurses, clerks and utility workers walked off the job at eight hospitals, organizers said. Government officials said that by today, the number dropped to 1,500 at five hospitals.