The Seoul Subway strike has been called off after a collective bargaining agreement was reached

The largest labor union of the Seoul Transit Corporation, which operates the Seoul Metro Line 1-8, reached an agreement early Friday morning to cancel the planned strike after negotiating a pay and collective labor agreement with the management.

Yonhap News Agency reported that the Seoul subway labor bargaining parties started the fifth meeting of negotiations on Thursday (5) afternoon and reached an agreement at around 2 a.m. Friday (1 a.m. Singapore time on 6).

Kim Tae-kyun, chairman of the First union, said after the talks that the management promised to hire 630 new workers and not implement a single-shift, single-driver duty system for Line 2. Labor and management also agreed on a 2.5% pay rise.

Seoul Transit Corporation has three major labor unions. As of July this year, the first union had the largest membership at 60 percent, while the second and third unions had 16.7 percent and 12.9 percent, respectively. The union had planned to go on strike from December 6, but fortunately the agreement was reached before the first train of the day, avoiding the inconvenience caused to the travel of the public during the rush hour.