bus strike in Seoul

Earlier this year while I was living in Gumi, there was a taxi strike. Now it is the bus drivers' turn. Thursday, November 22, 2012, a large number of bus drivers will go on strike across the country due to a bill being passed that would include taxis under public transportation. 

Check out this article by The Korea Times:

2012-11-21 17:31 No bus service today Buses stand idle in a parking lot in southern Seoul, Wednesday. Bus operators will halt their services starting Thursday to protest the National Assembly’s move to include taxis as means of mass public transportation.                                                                          / Korea Times photo by Choi Heung-soo   By Kim Rahn Traffic chaos is expected today as bus operators strike to protest the National Assembly’s passage of a bill to include taxis in the list of mass public transport. The Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee passed the bill Wednesday, despite strong opposition from bus companies as well as the government. According to the bill, taxis will be categorized as public transportation and thus will be able to get compensation for losses and other benefits from central and local governments as buses and subway operators do. Following the passage, the nationwide association of bus companies said their members will halt services for an indefinite period as it had threatened to do earlier. “We are indignant at the Assembly’s pushing ahead with the bill, ignoring opposition from citizens, the government and bus operators in order to win votes from the taxi industry ahead of the presidential election in December,” a director of the association said. According to the association, some 100,000 drivers of about 43,000 intra-city and inter-city buses will join the collective action, plus 20,000 drivers of 4,000 community buses. Operators and drivers of charter, express and tourist buses will not participate. While a final approval of the bill is up to a plenary session of the Assembly on Thursday or Friday, Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik asked parliament to put it on hold. The government has opposed the bill because it requires more money. “As the issue involves confrontation between related parties, we need to collect various opinions and discuss it further,” Kim said. The association claimed that taxis, if recognized as public transport, will get 2 trillion won in subsidies from central and local governments annually while they are already receiving benefits worth 760 billion won as fuel subsidies and tax credits. “Bus companies may have to share their government subsidies with taxis. Or the government will raise public transportation fees to secure more money, and citizens’ financial burden will get heavier,” the director said. He said both the ruling and opposition parties are pushing ahead with the bill for election purposes, as the number of people engaged in taxi operations is some 300,000, more than double that of the bus industry. As measures to cope with the bus service suspension, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said subway operation hours in the nation’s six major cities will be extended by one hour. During morning and evening rush hours, the number of subways trains will also be increased. The ministry will also have some 7,600 charter buses operate for major inter-city routes across the nation. Officials of the central and local governments and affiliate organizations will be allowed to come to work at 10 a.m., an hour later than usual. Each elementary, middle and high schools are also permitted to set their own school hours. In Seoul, the city government will have 400 shuttle buses operate between major subway stations and bus stops.  rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr,