orkers at five power producing units of Korea Electric Power Corp, the biggest generator in Asia's third-largest economy, will end their strike and return to their jobs, a union leader said.
Union members will return to work around 9am today, Jung Hong-sun said by telephone in Seoul yesterday. The illegal strike started at 1:30am after a government arbitration agency decided to mediate in the conflict between management and workers. Workers are barred from striking for 15 days after the agency starts arbitration.
The company said almost a quarter of its workers started an illegal strike to back claims for a change in the company's structure, but supply isn't disrupted.
PHOTO: AFP
Korea Electric in 2001 divided its power-production operations into five generating units and one for its nuclear power stations amid plans to sell shares in the companies. The labor union opposed the share sale plan, fearing lost jobs, and is now calling for the units to be combined again.
"We have no problem with the power supply at the moment and are making our best efforts to prevent any power stoppage," Korea Electric Power spokesman Cho Ki-hyoung said.
About 2,200 workers are participating in the strike out of a total union membership of some 6,500, he said. Korea Electric employs 9,300 people.
Workers who returned to their jobs by 1pm local time yesterday faced "minimal penalties," Cho said.
Management and workers failed to agree on the union's demands for a merger of the generation units, the reinstatement of fired workers and better working conditions, Cho said.
Workers will continue their strike until they reach agreement with management, Jung Hong-sun, a union leader, said by telephone.
"There should be no power stoppage as we will eventually work out a solution," Jung said. Workers have decided to end the strike, YTN cable news channel reported, citing another official from the union.
The strike comes weeks after the nation's largest automakers ended labor stoppages that cost hundreds of millions of dollars in lost production.
Strikes this year at Kia Motors Corp, South Korea's second-largest automaker, and its parent Hyundai Motor Co, the nation's biggest, cost the automakers about 2 trillion won (US$2.08 billion) in combined lost output.
Hyundai Motor ended in July the second-worst strike in its history, which cost the carmaker about 1.3 trillion won in lost production. The strike at Kia resulted in the lost output of 47,983 vehicles, valued at about 730 billion won from July 27 to Aug. 31.
Ssangyong Motor Co, the South Korean unit of China's biggest carmaker, on Aug. 31 settled a seven-week strike that cost the automaker about 13 percent of its annual production.
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