AGENCIES,
South Korea’s ports threatened to grind to a halt yesterday as thousands of truck drivers extended their damaging strike action over soaring fuel prices, officials said.
Port operators were handling just 20 percent of the average volume of cargo, the ministry of land, transport and maritime affairs said, as 13,000 truckers entered day three of their stoppage.
Some freight yards at the country’s biggest port of Busan were already overloaded with stalled shipping containers, as trucks stood idle in protest against rising oil costs, the ministry said.
Unionized truckers went on strike on Friday, demanding steps to cut energy costs or raise transport fees after the diesel price rose more than 30 percent since the beginning of the year.
Authorities were mobilizing military truck drivers and moving cargo onto trains to try to lessen the strike’s impact, while police were forced to escort non-striking truck drivers to work on safety grounds.
After a meeting yesterday, the government and the ruling party warned any drivers who obstructed movement of cargo from ports would be “sternly” dealt with.
The truckers’ union has threatened to seal off Busan, through which three-quarters of South Korea’s shipping containers pass, to press for their demands.
Besides oil prices, workers also expressed anger toward South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
Lee, who stormed to a landslide victory in a December presidential election, has seen his support plummet because of an unpopular deal to open the local market wider to US beef imports and opposition to his calls for privatizing state firms.
The militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) is set to announce results of a strike vote today. Its members include metal workers for Hyundai Motor.
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