Truckers start striking over fuel prices
June 11, 2008
Trailer trucks are parked near the container terminal at Pyeongtaek Port in Gyeonggi Province as some members of the independent truckers’ union began to refuse to haul containers yesterday. [YONHAP]
Prior to a planned nationwide strike scheduled to begin Friday, unionized truckers in several locations have begun work stoppages, a move that could hurt Korea’s already fragile economy.
In the Pyeongtaek Harbor near Seoul, a total of 444 car carriers and truck drivers belonging to an alliance of unionized truckers called a strike yesterday in the container terminal. A total of 13,500 20-foot containers, which should be delivered to Seoul and other cities in Gyeonggi, were still piled up there. Other regions are face the same predicament.
The 59,893.5-square-meter (14.8-acre) pier, located in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, which is usually crowded with several dozen trucks at any moment, was empty yesterday. About 60 trailer drivers who went on strike yesterday repeatedly shouted “Raise shipping prices,” and “Lower diesel costs,” as they gathered at a vacant lot three kilometers away from the pier.
In Ulsan, drivers of a total of 130 car carriers already called a strike on Monday. They used to deliver 800 out of 1,200 cars per day produced by the Hyundai Motor Ulsan factory.
“With recent oil price hikes, drivers spend 480,000 won ($468) out of their daily wages of 550,000 won on fuel. As a result, we are bleeding red ink,” Kim Sang-soo, a driver, said.
About 180 truck drivers started to refuse shipments on June 5 in Changwon, South Gyeonsang.
Experts are worried about the expected economic damage to the country. They anticipate that if the strikes continue for more than a week, the estimated economic loss will run up to 500 billion won.
Meanwhile, the Korean government decided to introduce emergency transportation measures to prevent economic disaster. To maintain normal operations, the government will call on hundreds of non-unionized truck drivers and bring 500 military containers and 1,000 military trucks into service. Government officials recommended companies use the railroads for deliveries. Companies are also considering allowing private and commercial vehicles to ship goods.
On Monday, an alliance of unionized truckers announced that they will go on a nationwide strike.
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the whole world suffering from high-price so i think from now on, countries and companies investment replace-energy such as solar-energy or hybrid.
but Korea has not any well-known company in this industry. in the future,Korea will depend on foreign energy.
and knowledge based industry will be very profitable and human resource will be critical point in the global market.
Korea suffering from high oil price, but Korea has many cutting edge technologies such as Dram or NAND flash memory.
so we concentrate developing technology and human resource.
20500530 entry #14
