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The labor's much-heralded protest rally against public sector restructuring, called the "winter struggle," has virtually come to an end with major unions calling off scheduled strikes, officials and observers said yesterday.
"There is no major collective action plan scheduled until yearend," said Son Nak-gu, a spokesman for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), one of the nation's two umbrella labor groups. "We will shift the focus of our protest to more general issues, such as realization of a five-day workweek, from the protest against the government's corporate restructuring."

He said that labor disputes regarding the restructuring would be dealt with by individual workplace unions involved in the disputes, and that it was hardly likely for the entire umbrella labor group to be involved in such individual issues.

The other umbrella labor group, the Federation of Korea Trade Unions (FKTU), also said that there was no detailed schedule for their future struggle.

Indicating the decline in the labor's protest drive, observers also noted that there is a high possibility of the FKTU returning to the negotiation table with representatives of the government and the management.

Dialogue between the government and labor circles remain suspended after the FKTU, which was the only labor group in the Tripartite Commission, bolted from the panel of government, management and labor, called Tripartite Commission, last month.

Forming an unusual alliance in their struggle, the two labor groups have staged a series of collective actions to drum up public support in their fight against the government's restructuring that they fear would lead to massive layoffs. Many people have renamed the "winter struggle" protest drive as the "spring struggle," in reference to labor actions in the usual wage bargaining season of spring.

However, coupled with deteriorating economic conditions, the protest drive lost momentum after the cancellations of strike plans by unionized workers at Korea Electric Power Corp. early this month, and then by the union at Korea National Railroad Sunday.

Despite threats from the KT union to go on strike from Sunday, observers said that the ongoing labor dispute at Korea Telecom (KT) would also be resolved in an amicable manner.

The 38,000 members of the KT union approved their leaders' strike plan last week. The union yesterday said it could not help but to push ahead with the strike Sunday, so long as the government and the management continue their refusal to make concessions in their corporate restructuring plan.

By Chang Jae-soon Staff reporter