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Seoul subway union, company reach deal to end strike

November 30, 2022

Unionized workers at Seoul Metro reached an agreement with the management on a corporate restructuring plan Thursday, effectively ending a strike that caused some subway service disruptions in the capital region, officials said.

Allied labor unions of Seoul Metro, representing some 13,000 workers, or 80 percent of the firm’s entire workforce, began the walkout early Wednesday morning, one day after negotiations with the company fell through.

The two sides resumed talks at around 8 p.m. Wednesday, and reached an agreement shortly after midnight, according to officials.

Details of the deal were not known, though the unions had protested against Seoul Metro’s plan to downsize its workforce by more than 1,500 employees through 2026.

The company mobilized replacement workers to help keep train operations at their normal level, but train operation rates fell to 85.7 percent of normal operations during evening rush hours on Wednesday, causing significant travel delays and chaos.

The strike was the first of its kind in six years, with the previous strike taking place in September 2016.

Passengers wait for a train on a heavily crowded platform at Chungmuro Station on Seoul subway Line No. 4 on Nov. 30, 2022, when unionized workers of Seoul Metro, the city-run operator of the subway system, went on strike. (Yonhap)