Rail union leaders voluntarily appear for questioning

Leaders of a rail union wanted by police for leading last month‘s intensive strike voluntarily turned themselves in to police for questioning Tuesday.

The eleven leaders of the state-run Korea Railroad Corp. union, including the head of the union, Kim Myung-hwan, showed up at Yongsan Police Station in central Seoul later in the day.

For the past one month, they have been defying police summons and taking refuge in two groups in the headquarters of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the more militant of the country’s two umbrella unions, and the Jogye Temple in central Seoul.

The leaders were discussing unresolved issues such as the management‘s disciplinary measures against unionists who participated in the country’s longest strike, which ended on Dec.30, the union said.

Thousands of KORAIL unionists face tough disciplinary measures for their participation in the three-week-long strike against a government plan to establish a subsidiary to run some high-speed train services. The union suspects the move is a precursor to rail privatization.

Despite a dramatic closure after rival parties cut a deal with the KORAIL union to form a parliamentary subcommittee on preventing the privatization of rail services, police and prosecutors have vowed no leniency toward those who led the “illegal walkout.”
 
(Yonhap News)