South Korea: Hundreds of rail workers arrested

231 railway workers were arrested and 2,244 workers were suspended during the third day of a mass strike in South Korea.

Submitted by libcom on March 4, 2006

The strike appears to be waning as a quarter of strikers returned to work in the face of threats, and an umbrella union called off the separate general strike reported by libcom.org/news earlier this week.

Police raided six sites to arrest the 231 strikers, and seized documents and computer files from three offices of the Korean Railway Workers' Union. Nearly 300 union reps have been prevented from carrying out their duties, part of moves to "punish" them for leading the wildcat strike, according to a Korail spokesman. The strike was declared illegal by the government on Tuesday when it imposed emergency arbitration, under which all collective actions are banned for a 15 day period.

Kim Chang ho, head of the Government Information Agency, said it was considering "all possible measures" to deal with the strike.

MORE INFO:
Korea: general strike
http://libcom.org/news/article.php/korea-general-strike-280106

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