KPTU Seoul Metro Line 9 workers were on strike from 30 November to 6 December to demand an increase in workforce levels and improved working conditions and passenger safety. Read more on the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Facebook page.
RAPT Dev, a subsidiary of the Paris Transit Corporation (RATP), and Transdev own the majority share (80 percent) in the Seoul Line 9 Operation Company.
During a candlelight rally on 4 December, the striking workers returned solidarity and expressed thanks for support received from the ITF, its European arm the ETF and its affiliates.
Wol-san Liem, KPTU’s director of international and Korean Peninsula affairs, said: “KPTU members were forced to go on strike because the Seoul Line 9 Operating Company has sacrificed workers’ rights and put passenger safety at risk, in the name of guaranteeing dividends for its parent companies.
“We are truly grateful for the solidarity and support given by the ITF and its affiliates. It has shown us that we are not alone in our struggle. I hope this experience of mutual solidarity will be a basis for greater unity and collective action among RATP and Transdev unions in the future.”
Alana Dave, leader of the ITF’s Our Public Transport programme, commented that the ITF stood with the KPTU and that union solidarity was very important to workers fighting for good jobs and union rights in public transport operations around the world.
• Unions which sent solidarity messages to the KPTU and protest letters to the parent companies include: CGT transports, railways, maritime and infrastructure federations and their affiliates in RATP and Transdev in France; the Rail Maritime and Transport Unions in New Zealand (RMTUNZ); the United Transport Workers’ Organisation in the Philippines, the Japan Confederation of Railway Workers’ Unions (JRU); UMT in Morocco; and the FNTT/UGTA in Algeria.
• The ETF rail section adopted a support resolution at its plenary meeting on 30 Nov.
• The 4 December rally also sent a solidarity message to RMTUNZ Wellington and Auckland rail workers, who are in dispute with Transdev in defence of their employement terms and conditions. See 1’ 30” in this KPTU video.
