BUSAN — Busan Transportation Corp. and its labor union reached a tentative agreement in late-night talks, defusing strike fears that had mounted after the union declared negotiations broken off. The union withdrew its strike plan, and Busan's urban railway operated normally from the first train on the 23rd.
The two sides produced a "2026 collective bargaining tentative agreement" at the 19th round of talks held at the Nopo rail depot in Busan's Geumjeong district at about 11 p.m. the previous day, according to the corporation and the Busan Subway Labor Union on the 23rd.
The tentative agreement includes a request to the Busan city government to add 29 employees, a 3.5% wage increase, the formation of a joint labor-management task force to ensure objectivity in calculating and deploying on-site safety personnel, improvements to working conditions and shift systems for non-civil-service workers, and measures to increase staffing at subsidiaries and eliminate discriminatory treatment.
The two sides had begun final negotiations at 3 p.m. that day but failed to narrow differences over the wording of parts of an agreement on a joint labor-management cooperation body covering the parent company and its subsidiaries, prompting the union to declare the talks broken off. The deadlock turned around afterward during an emergency meeting of more than an hour attended by three representatives from each side, including the corporation's president and the union chairman.
With the union calling off the strike it had announced, the feared disruption to commuters was avoided. If the tentative agreement is finalized through ratification by union delegates and a vote of the membership, Busan Transportation Corp. will have gone seven consecutive years without a labor dispute.