At 6:55 a.m. on the 1st at Wangsimni Station on Seoul Subway Line 5. A person surnamed Shin, 66, said left home an hour earlier than usual to get to work. Shin said, "I didn't know there would be this many people at this hour," and added, "The commute home will probably be even more crowded, and I'm already worried."
In the station, an announcement was repeated every time a train entered the platform: "Due to the union's rule-based operation, some trains may be delayed. We apologize for any inconvenience."
As the labor union of Seoul Metro, which operates subway Lines 1 to 8 in Seoul, began a "rule-based protest" that day, commuters experienced inconvenience during the morning rush hour.
On Line 2 that day, the headway during rush hour increased from the usual 2 to 3 minutes to as much as 6 minutes. Park Jong-hun, 59, whom we met around 7:20 a.m. at Gangnam Station, said, "The next train usually used to be one station away, but today it's two stations away, so I can feel the delays right away."
Around 8:10 a.m., trains made 40-second stops at Sadang Station on Line 2, causing headways to be delayed one after another. An office worker, a person surnamed Ahn, 34, said, "I didn't know about the rule-based protest, but today it feels 30% to 40% more crowded than usual."
Citing a breakdown in this year's wage and collective bargaining, the No. 1 union, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) Seoul Metro Labor Union, and the No. 2 union, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions Seoul Metro Integrated Union, launched a rule-based protest starting with the first trains that day. Members of the two unions account for 74% of all union members (11,613 people).
A rule-based protest involves fully securing the designated 30-second stop time for boarding and alighting for safety, and refusing tasks outside the rules. As train speeds decrease, it has an effect similar to a slowdown.
However, conditions were better than in Nov. last year when the Seoul Metro union staged a rule-based protest. At that time, as the KORAIL (Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL)) union also began a rule-based protest, more than 150 trains were delayed by over 20 minutes.
Citizens met in subway stations that day also said, "It feels more crowded than usual, but isn't the commute always like this?" and "It was about 3 minutes later than usual for the train to arrive."
The problem is that the protests could escalate into a strike. Currently, all three unions at Seoul Metro have broken off wage and collective bargaining with management, and mediation by the Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission has been halted. The "industrial action agenda" also passed a union vote. This means they have secured the legal right to strike.
The No. 1 and No. 3 unions warned they will launch a general strike on the 12th if management and the Seoul city government do not present a better proposal for wage and collective bargaining. The No. 2 union is also considering a general strike in mid-December.
Key issues in this year's bargaining include the wage increase rate, restructuring, and the scale of new hiring. The unions argue they must adhere to the government-recommended 3% wage increase for public institutions and oppose restructuring. In contrast, the corporation says only a 1.8% increase is possible due to financial difficulties.