Details: The South Korean government raised the freight strike crisis warning to the highest level

Yonhap News Agency, Seoul, November 28. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of South Korea (hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport) stated on the 28th that the continuous strike of the freight unions has caused logistics losses to continue to expand. For this reason, it has decided to raise the crisis warning to the highest level of "serious" level.

The general strike launched by the cargo transportation union "Cargo Joint Headquarters" (hereinafter referred to as the "Cargo Joint") on the 24th has entered its fifth day. The Ministry of Land and Resources stated that the above-mentioned measures took into account the spread of joint strikes on goods to the whole country, which caused the transportation of import and export goods at major logistics facilities such as ports to be blocked.

With the crisis warning raised to the highest level, the Central Disaster Safety Countermeasure Headquarters will take the lead in responding to the strike situation. Therefore, Minister of Administration and Security Lee Sang-min presided over a countermeasure headquarters meeting at 10 a.m. on the same day to discuss specific countermeasures with the Ministry of Administration and Security, the National Police Agency, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Resources, and take comprehensive emergency measures across departments. . The government plans to mobilize all forces to reduce the losses caused by the strike to the national economy.

The Ministry of Land and Resources will hold the first negotiation since the strike at the Sejong Office Building of the Central Government at 2 p.m. that day. This will also be the first dialogue between the two sides after 13 days since the 15th of this month. It is reported that the goods jointly require the government to permanently implement the safe freight system and expand its scope of application, while the Ministry of Land and Resources insists that the implementation can only be extended for three years, and the scope of application cannot be expanded. The key point of the cargo safety freight system is to set a lower limit for freight charges to prevent freight car owners from being overworked, overloaded, and speeding. It was originally scheduled to be implemented for three years from 2020 to this year.

Analysis pointed out that the outcome of the negotiations between the two sides may not be optimistic. There is also a view that if the negotiations break down, the government is likely to issue a joint "order to start work" on the goods after deliberation and voting at the State Council on the 29th.

The "Cargo Truck Transport Business Act" stipulates that if a truck driver refuses an order to start work issued by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism without justified reasons, he will be sentenced to a fixed-term imprisonment of up to 3 years or a fine of up to 30 million won (about 162,000 yuan). (Finish)

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