Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said on the 13th that he felt "a heavy responsibility" after the Seoul city bus union launched a general strike when talks with management broke down.
In a Facebook post titled "The Seoul Metropolitan Government will take full responsibility to ensure citizens' mobility is not paralyzed" on the day, Mayor Oh said, "Negotiations between the Seoul city bus labor and management, which continued until early this morning, have finally broken down, and the bus union has gone on strike," and stated accordingly.
Oh said, "To prevent transportation chaos and minimize inconvenience to citizens, we immediately activated emergency transportation measures," adding, "We will mobilize all available means of transportation."
Oh outlined the resulting emergency transportation measures. The Seoul Metropolitan Government will lengthen subway headways for the morning commute from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., and for the evening commute from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., in response to the city bus union strike. The last train time at terminal stations will also be pushed back from the current 1 a.m. to 2 a.m., with 172 additional trips operated in a day. In addition, the 25 districts of Seoul will run free shuttle buses to subway stations.
Oh said, "We will persuade both labor and management to the end," adding, "We will not let go of the thread of dialogue and will do our best so that buses, the legs of citizens, can return to normal operations as soon as possible."
He added, "All Seoul city officials will stand on site with extraordinary resolve for citizens' safety and travel convenience."