Busan's subway operator and its unions enter last-ditch negotiations on the 21st, one day before a strike deadline. If the talks collapse, it would mark the first joint walkout by unions at a parent company and its subsidiary since the revised Trade Union Act, known as the yellow envelope law, took effect. At stake is not only the outcome of parent-subsidiary bargaining under the revised law but also the role of public institutions as model employers.
The operations and service branch of the Busan Subway Workers' Union, the subsidiary union affiliated with the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, will hold final talks with Busan Transportation Corp., the parent company, and the subsidiary at 3 p.m. on the 21st, according to labor sources on the 21st. If no final agreement is reached, the subsidiary union will launch a full strike on the 22nd. The parent company's union plans to join on the 23rd in a solidarity action.
The walkout would be the first chain of strikes by a parent company and its subsidiary in which a subsidiary union has secured a legal right to industrial action against the parent company. Behind the possibility of a joint strike lies the unusual structure of the Busan Subway Workers' Union, a single union that covers workers at both the parent company and the subsidiary. It operates through five branches: four at Busan Transportation Corp. and one, the operations and service branch, at Busan Urban Railway Operation Service, the subsidiary.
Busan Transportation Corp. has drawn attention as a cooperative model since the revised law took effect, enough to prompt a visit by Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon. It raised expectations of becoming a model case in which the parent company's union helps resolve poor working conditions at the subsidiary. The two sides held six rounds of parent-subsidiary negotiations from July 22 to Sept. 21 but failed to narrow their differences. The subsidiary union, whose members handle cleaning and facility management, demanded budget allocations to improve essential facilities such as break rooms and shower rooms at stations and depots as well as safety equipment at hazardous locations, a normalization of labor cost calculation standards to address pay falling short of statutory ordinary wages, and additional safety staffing. The corporation, citing accumulated losses, refused to set aside a budget for facility improvements and was reluctant to accept the staffing increase and the cost calculation changes, according to sources.
A strike at Busan Transportation Corp. could further inflame organized labor, already agitated since the revised law took effect. Unions have argued that the reluctance of public institutions to bargain stems from the limits of the government's guidelines on interpreting the law. At a news conference on the 19th, the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union said that over the past seven months, not a single workplace in the public sector has seen bargaining proceed properly, blaming complicated bargaining procedures, interpretation guidelines that narrowed the scope of bargaining agenda, and government inaction.
Labor observers see a strong chance that any strike would end early or that a dramatic last-minute deal would be struck. The new head of Busan Transportation Corp., to be appointed this week, is seen as a key variable in the final round of talks. Under the structure of local public enterprises, the corporation's chief executive serves as the channel to the Busan metropolitan government, which holds the real authority over the company. That is why some analysts say the appointment could provide a breakthrough in the deadlocked negotiations.
For now, the subsidiary union plans to hold an emergency general meeting at 6 p.m. on the 21st in the plaza in front of Busan City Hall to resolve on a general strike. It will announce whether to go on strike based on the outcome of the final negotiations.