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28 March 2024

South Korean truckers threaten to block port

Cargo containers are stacked at a container yard in Uiwang, south of Seoul on Saturday as South Korean truckers extended their strike over high fuel costs. (REUTERS)

Published
By AP
Striking truck drivers in South Korea threatened on Saturday to block the country’s largest port to protest surging fuel prices, deepening the woes of the government, already reeling from public outrage over the resumption of US beef imports.

About 13,000 unionised truckers began the strike on Friday, demanding the government increase fuel subsidies, help raise transportation charges and introduce a minimum wage. The stoppage immediately disrupted operations at seaports and caused millions of dollars in export losses.

Government officials and leaders of the Korean Cargo Workers’ Union – which spearheaded the walkout – met several times earlier in the week, but failed to make a breakthrough.

On Saturday, Kim Young-don, a spokesman for the union’s local chapter in Busan, which handles 75 per cent of the country’s container traffic, said it was considering blocking entrances of the port within a few days if the government rejects its demands.

TV footage showed docks clogged with containers piled high in Busan and other major ports.

On Saturday morning, 16,236 containers moved in and out of major ports in South Korea, compared with the half-day average of 67,871 before the strike, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.

“It’s stressful to look at the piles of containers. But the government hasn’t listened to our voice,” said union member Chung Hee-seon. Some non-unionized truckers also joined the walkout, she said.

The truckers’ strike has already caused $11 million (Dh40.48 million) in losses to exporters and $3 million (Dh11 million) to importers, according to the Korea International Trade Association, a private association of exporters and importers.

The government dispatched military trucks and used trains to transport cargo, and also plans to send police if strikers prevent cargo from entering seaports or engage in other illegal activities.

The strike is the latest headache for President Lee Myung-bak, who has faced weeks of street demonstrations over his agreement to resume American beef imports.

On Friday, about 10,000 people gathered in front of Seoul’s City Hall, demanding that Lee scrap or renegotiate the deal. Many chanted “Lee Myung-bak, step down” and “Lee Myung-bak, out!”

More rallies were expected on Saturday and Sunday, according to organisers and police.

In Washington, the chief trade envoys of South Korea and the US launched talks on Friday aimed at resolving the beef dispute, which has prompted Lee’s entire Cabinet to offer to resign. Meetings between South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon and US Trade Representative Susan Schwab were expected to continue over the weekend.

South Korea was the third-largest overseas market for US beef until it banned imports after a case of mad cow disease was detected in 2003, the first of three confirmed cases in the United States.

Mad cow disease is the common name for a brain-wasting disease in cattle called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. In people, eating meat contaminated with BSE is linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare and deadly nerve disease.