S Korea Labour Calls Biggest Strike Ever

South Koreas main labour union group on Thursday called for the biggest strike in the nations history, but workers began streaming back to shipyards and car plants in response to government threats.

Meanwhile, an international union body added its voice to condemnation of a new labour law that has sparked worker fury and opposition parties challenged the bill in Seouls constitutional court.

Thousands of workers turned central Seoul into a rubble-strewn battleground as they clashed with riot police, sending terrified shoppers racing for cover.

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions, which claims 1.2 million members, said a two-day strike would begin on Tuesday to force the government to dump legislation that allows companies to lay off workers, set flexible work hours and use part-time labour.

Federation president Park In-sang said electricity, port and railway workers had been instructed to go on partial strike and all others to join a full stoppage.

The federation calls on all its members to join the largest strike ever, led especially by the public sector, Park told a news conference.

City buses and subways would stop and hospitals, banks, hotels, taxis, publishing companies and state industries, including the tobacco monopoly, would be affected. On Wednesday a statement by the ministers of interior, justice and labour threatened stern measures against strikes that have been declared illegal.

By Thursday strikes had almost completely crumbled at shipyards and unions at the giant Hyundai Group in Ulsan a hotbed of union militancy had retreated from all-out stoppages and begun partial strikes.

It appeared that unions were now adopting disruption tactics to avoid the threat of legal action against unlawful, wildcat strikes.

State prosecutors said they were seeking arrest warrants for seven leaders of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which boasts half a million workers and is spearheading industrial action now under way.

The confederation has ordered all-out stoppages from next Wednesday unless the government scraps the law.

Unions claimed 190,000 workers were on strike, but that number included unionists on work-to-rule. The labour ministry put the figure at about 75,000. The countrys previous biggest industrial action was in 1989 when the government said some 400,000 workers downed tools. But those strikes dragged on for months.

Confederation leader Kwon Young-kil said all-out strikes would start immediately if police acted on arrest warrants being sought by prosecutors against himself and six colleagues sheltering in a tent on the grounds of Seouls Myongdong Cathedral.

Around 4,000 workers ripped up paving stones around Myongdong and hurled them at squads riot officers who fired back choking tear gas that caught shoppers and office workers heading home during the evening rush hour.

It was some of the worst violence since the strikes erupted on December 26 after the law was rammed through Parliament. Kwon called for international pressure on the South Korean government to repeal the new labour law.

The global union grouping, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), condemned the legislation that it said added to existing violations of union rights. These included provision for replacing strikers as temporarily employed strike breakers, for dismissed workers to lose the right to belong to a union, and for a ban on companies paying strikers during a stoppage. Opposition parties jointly challenged the law in the constitutional court and appealed to the court to suspend the till until a ruling is made.

President Kim Young-sam and senior government and ruling party officials have all made clear they will not retreat from legislation they say is needed to make the labour market more flexible, cut industrial costs and shore up the countrys sagging competitiveness.