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Increased labor unrest may be on the horizon as various trade unions appear set to resist government plans to carry out further restructuring in the financial and public sectors.

At the core of the mounting labor tensions are the unions of the nation's 22 commercial and special-purpose banks, which are threatening to stage a walkout starting on July 11 to protest the government's plan to integrate financial institutions.

Bank management has attempted to contain the situation, saying all senior-level officials and contract employees will be on regular-duty.

However, observers have noted that a strike by the over 50,000 rank-and-file bank employees represented by the Korea Federation of Bank and Financial Labor Unions could easily disrupt the smooth flow of the nation's financial transactions.

Trade unions in the public sector are also capitalizing on the new atmosphere.

Unionized workers at the Korea High Speed Rail Construction Authority launched their first-ever strike June 21, demanding the government guarantee their positions in the course of the company's privatization.

Members of the Environmental Management Corp. union, meanwhile, have also warned that they will stage a walkout beginning tomorrow over layoffs which could result from the creation of a public corporation with overlapping duties.

Labor forces are also determined to confront the government for what they insist were excessive and unfair crackdowns on their activities.

"President Kim Dae-jung's government has been dogged by rumors of another economic crisis, pressure from foreign investors, its defeat in the last general elections and counterattacks from conservative forces," said Dan Byung-ho, head of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, one of the nation's two umbrella groups.

"As a way out of this, it is cracking down on workers and the masses instead of on doctors and conservative forces," Dan said.

The past few weeks have been marred by a string of intense labor strikes and demonstrations, some of which resulted in violent physical clashes between unionists and authorities.

A three-hour confrontation between thousands of riot police and some 1,100 striking unionists at Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul left dozens of workers injured.

Hotel workers have also charged the police with drinking alcohol before clamping down on the protesters, some of which were pregnant women.

On Sunday, riot police broke up a sit-in strike by members of the National Health Insurance Corporation in a predawn raid. Two protesters and a policeman were injured in the operation.

About 2,000 workers at the corporation, which runs the nation's medical insurance system, went on strike last Wednesday to demand a wage increase, more staff and a cut in insurance bills for low-income families.

The handling of workers' strikes, labor leaders have protested, stands in stark contrast to how the government dealt with a doctors' strike June 20-25. Law-enforcement authorities did little to end the doctor's six-day walkout, which endangered people's lives, only warning participants they would face criminal action.