Power company workers in South ended their five week old strike protesting the impending privatization of the publicly owned utility and further privatization of Korea's railway and gas utilities earlier today (see WIT for March 26, 2002). While the workers have secured promises form the government that workers will not be fired for striking---and have been offered in increased job security and shorter work weeks---the government plans to continue with privatization, and is insisting on its right to fire union leaders for what the government considers an illegal strike. The preliminary agreement is extremely vague on many points, and union leaders have made it clear that if these ambiguities are not ironed out more strikes are possible.
See "Korean strike off as power dispute is solved", ANDREW WARD, Financial Times, April 1, 2002