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Workers of Seoul Metropolitan Subway Corporation Trade Union, affiliated with Korean Federation of Transportation, Public & Social Services Workers' Unions (KPSU), went on strike today, April 19, 1999, beginning
at 4 a.m., standing at the frontlines of an escalating general strike in the public sector that will expand under the leadership of Korean Confederation of Trade Unions' (KCTU) into a nationwide general strike
in May.
Today's public sector general strike is also joined by Dacom, Korea Power Engineering Company, Korea Electrical Safety Corporation, Korea Productivity Center, and others, totaling 11 enterprises under KPSU.
Through today's strike, Seoul Subway Trade Union is asserting its demands for employment security and subway reform. Seoul Metropolitan Subway Corporation is planning to cut 2,078 out of 11,492 subway workers
from their jobs as part of the government's larger public sector structural adjustment program. These layoffs represent not only the loss of wages but the unilateral severing of essential employee benefits,
such as housing and education subsidies, in the absence of a developed state-provided social welfare system.
The strikes open the first stage of a full-scale struggle against the government, following repeated government failure to respond to KPSU's and KCTU's demands for direct centralized bargaining with the government and immediate withdrawal of unilateral structural adjustment plans in the public sector.

Strike votes

KPSU voted unanimously in an extra-ordinary session of its National Congress on April 13 to begin general strike activities on April 19th led by Seoul Subway and to be joined in following days by more of KPSU's
affiliated unions.
In line with KPSU's plans to prepare its member unions for a full-scale struggle, Seoul Metropolitan Subway Corporation Trade Union voted from March 24-26 to decide whether to go on strike. 9,609 out of 9,841 unionists participated in a vote in which 8,308 (86%) voted in favor of striking.
Today's strikes will expand to other unions affiliated with KPSU. The trade union of Korea Telecom, the state-owned telecommunications enterprise, votes yesterday and today whether to go on strike beginning April 26. Korean Metal Workers' Federation and Korean Health and Medical
Workers' Union will strike beginning May 10, along with other federations under Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).

KPSU's demands

KPSU's objective is to change the government's neoliberal economic policy, specifically demanding the following:

1) reduction of working hours
2) maintenance of the public-good orientation of public enterprises and opposition to the sale of public enterprises to chaebols and foreign companies
3) withdrawal of performance pay schemes
4) withdrawal of regressive reforms to the retirement allowance system and attacks on workers' benefits
5) establishment of public sector industry-level collective bargaining with the government
6) trade union (or workers' representatives) participation in management.

Threat of arrests

Keeping in pace with union efforts to organize, the government has been pronouncing protest activities as illegal. The government has made strong statements threatening to arrest and imprison union leaders, and
has already begun to mobilize riot police to arrest protesting workers.
Unionists are taking refuge at Myongdong Cathedral in Seoul to protect themselves from arrest. The government has clearly shown that it is more determined to repress union activities than to make any efforts to peacefully resolve the issues.
KPSU Korean Federation of Transportation, Public & Social Services Workers' Unions (KPSU) formed on March 13, 1999, out of a merger of the three largest federations affiliated to KCTU in the public sector -
Korea Railway-Subway Labours Trade Unions (KRTU), Korean Federation of Public Service Labor Unions (KFPU), and Korean Federation of Public and Social Services Workers' Unions (KFPSU).
KPSU represents 100,000 workers in some 110 individual unions, making it the second largest federation in KCTU. KPSU brings together workers in large workplaces, like Korea Telecom and Seoul Subway, and smaller government-funded corporations or institutions, such as science and
technology research centers. The three co-presidents, formerly representing each of the three dissolved federations, are SEOK Chi-Soon, KIM Ho-Seun, and YANG Kyung-Kyu respectively