Will Seoul Buses Stop After 12 Years... Total Strike Vote Today

Voting from 9:00 to 15:30
If negotiations fail after final adjustments on the 27th
Bus service starts from the first bus on the 28th

The Seoul city bus union has announced that it will go on a full strike if this year's wage negotiations fail. On the 26th, a decision will be made on whether to stop operations from the first bus on the 28th based on a vote of all union members.

The Seoul City Bus Union of the Korea Federation of Automobile Workers' Unions will conduct a strike referendum for all union members from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on the same day. Covering a total of 419 routes operated by 61 companies, if the strike is approved, bus operations will be halted for the first time in 12 years since 2012.

The day before the bus union strike announced in 2019, the Yeouido Transfer Center in Seoul is crowded with passengers using the buses. Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

The union is demanding wage improvements that lag behind those in nearby semi-public city bus areas such as Incheon. In Incheon, the total wage increase rate over the past five years was 27.7%, whereas in Seoul it was only 14.9%. The labor and management sides have been negotiating wages through seven rounds of central labor-management talks and two preliminary adjustment meetings from December 28 last year to the 23rd of this month but have failed to reach an agreement.

The union is demanding a 12.7% hourly wage increase, while the employers are insisting on a wage freeze. Additionally, the union has presented key demands including ▲ improvement of the seniority system ▲ elimination of wage discrimination against contract workers after retirement.

Even if the vote leans toward 'strike approval,' there remains a possibility for last-minute coordination. The Seoul city bus labor and management will conduct final adjustment procedures at the Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission on the afternoon of the 27th. The union states that if no agreement is reached by midnight following the adjustment, a legal strike will become possible.

Previously, in 2022, the Seoul Bus Union also held a strike vote in protest against two consecutive years of wage freezes and decided on a full strike on April 26. However, in the early hours of the same day, a final negotiation resulted in an agreement for a 5% wage increase, and bus operations continued normally.