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Making clear their refusal to accept cuts in pay and holidays as part of a government proposal to eliminate the extra half-day that most workers in South Korea?s manufacturing sector currently work, 80,000 to 120,000 union members struck across South Korea on Monday. In the face of this overwhelming industrial action, the South Korean government yesterday abandoned its plans to transition to a five-day workweek and decided to stick with the current system, rather than transitioning to the shorter workweek without reducing pay and benefit---which would have been the ideal outcome according to unions. While some Korean banks and other financial companies have switched to the five-day week because of the difficulties of doing business when most institutions in other developed countries are closed, industrial workers remain strong in their opposition to losing benefits associated with the longer workweek.