8 June 2022

Wol-san Liem & Aelim Yun

Brief on the South Korean Truck Drivers’ Strike in June 2022

Introduction to KPTU-TruckSol

• The national truck drivers’ strike, which began at 0:00 on 7 June, is being organised by the KCTU-affiliated Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union Cargo Truckers’ Solidarity Division (KPTU-TruckSol).
• Over 90 percent of truck drivers in South Korea – the workers who actually carry out the road freight transport task at the bottom of extended contracting chains – are owner truck drivers (owner-operators), classified in Korea as ‘specially-employed’.
• TruckSol was formed in 2002 (first independently, before later affiliating to KPTU) with the specific goal of organising these owner truck drivers. Since its first strike in 2003, TruckSol has carried out several national strikes, and also regularly engage in collective action at the company, local and regional level, through which the union has create bargaining tables and reach agreements with transport companies and clients, and carry out regular consultations with the Government, despite their rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining not being adequately protected in law. These collective actions have, as such, have been efforts to achieve and exercise fundamental labour rights.

Main demands in the 2022 strike 

l Make the Safe Rates system permanent and expand coverage

• After 15 years of campaigning and collective action, legislation for partial revision of the Trucking Transport Business Act (TTBA), which established the Safe Trucking Freight Rates (Safe Rates) system, passed the South Korean National Assembly in 2018. This system follows the recommendations on ‘sustainable payments’ outlined in paras 76-77 of the ILO Guidelines on the promotion of decent work and road safety in the transport sector, adopted in 2019.  
• ‘Safe rates’ are defined in the TTBA as “the minimum freight rates necessary to ensure traffic safety by preventing overwork, speeding, and overloading by guaranteeing owner-operator truck drivers fair freight rates by adding a fair margin to the safe trucking cost.”
• The revision of the TTBA established the Committee on Safe Freight Rates (Safe Rates Committee) under of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MoLIT). The Safe Rates Committee’s main function is the determination and adjustment of the safe rates applicable the following year. It is composed of representatives of owner drivers (TruckSol), transport companies and clients (also known as ‘shippers’ or ‘freight owners’) and of the public interest (appointed by the government).
• The Safe Rates system currently covers only transport of import/export containers and bulk cement by articulated vehicles. This amounts to roughly 26 thousand out of 410 thousand registered commercial vehicles – approximately 6.3%. TruckSol is therefore demanding extension of the system to cover all commercial freight transport vehicles.
• In addition, under the current law, the Safe Rates system is limited by a sunset clause. Safe rates will be in force for 3 years (2020-2022) after which the system will end. As such, TruckSol is demanding repeal of the sunset clause to make the system permanent.    

Lead up to the strike

• Since 2019 TruckSol has represented owner truck drivers in the Safe Rates Committee.
• In 2018 the Safe Rates legislation passed the National Assembly with the condition that, “one year before the sunset clause comes into effect, the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will evaluate the results of implementation of the Safe Rates system and report to the National Assembly with regards to the need for extension, improvements to the system and other related matters.” However, the Government has failed to live up to this commitment.
• TruckSol has consistently called on the government to make good on its commitment in the National Assembly and put forth a plan for preserving and expanding the Safe Rates system through both official and unofficial channels. On 28 May 2022 over 12,000 TruckSol members participated in a national rally putting forth the same demands to the Government and National Assembly. TruckSol has also been supported by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), which has held two weeks of action in October 2021 and May 2022 in support of TruckSol’s demands and to call for implementation of the  Guidelines on the Promotion of Decent Work and Road Safety in the Transport Sector in Korea and globally. 
• Nonetheless, the Government has failed to live up to its commitment and has not engage in meaningful dialogue with TruckSol on extension of the system. In this context, TruckSol began unlimited national strike action at 0:00 on 7 June. 

The Government’s response to the strike

• While failing to engage in meaningful dialogue with TruckSol, the government convened a ‘Client and Transport Company Associations Meeting on Response to the National TruckSol Strike’ on 25 May, at which some 20 representatives of client and transport company associations participated. Measures for assessing TruckSol's plans and minimising the impact of the strike were discussed at this meeting.
• On 28 May the MoLIT made reference to the possibility of running a taskforce composed of stakeholders during a discussion forum on the impact of the Safe Rates system organised by the Korea Transport Institute. While some media has reported that TruckSol has refused to participate in this stakeholder body, in fact the Government has made no clear proposal about the content or operation of this taskforce, which appears to be a means for delaying the legal National Assembly process. 
• On 3 June, before the strike, the Government put out a position stating that the strike, “has no clear justification and is an inappropriate action being taken at a time of economic difficulty.” On 5 June, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo called for, “strict measures based on law and principle in response to illegal actions aimed at disrupting transport,” during a meeting of related Ministers. On 7 June, President Yoon Seok-youl told reporters, the government would “response to workers’ illegal actions in accordance with law and principle.”    
• On 3 June, even before the strike began, the Government announced plans to “prevent illegal actions at ports, ICDs, highway toll booths, rest areas and other main logistics hubs where blockage of transport or occupations by TruckSol are expected through the advanced stationing of police forces and strengthening of 112 emergency patrols.” In fact, some 90 police companies (roughly 7,000 police officers) were stationed at 16 logistics hubs around the country on the morning of 7 June. In other words, even before the strike started, the Government treated it as an illegal collective action and sent in law enforcement.
• On 7 June an anonymous party from within the Office of the President told the media that because “the members of TruckSol are legally not workers but independent contractors” their strike is not considered exercise of the legally protected right to collective action, nor does the Government see TruckSol as a legitimate negotiating partner.

 First violation of freedom of association following Conventions No. 87 and 98 coming into force in South Korea

• Since 2011 the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association has request of the ROK Government that it take the necessary measures to ensure that self-employed workers such as owner truck drivers and all workers in Korea can fully enjoy the rights to freedom of association through the trade union of their choosing for the purpose of furthering and defending their interests. <Case No. 2602, CFA Report No.359 (2011); CFA Report No.363 (2012); CFA Report No.374 (2015)>^[1] 
• TruckSol’s strike is the first test case following ILO Conventions Nos 87 and 98 having come into effect on 20 April 2022, to see whether the South Korean Government respects the principle of freedom of association.
• Sadly, the Government’s response of refusing to recognise TruckSol as a trade union and slandering the strike as an ‘illegal collective action’ violates the principle of freedom of association.
• In addition, the acts of dispatching police forces en masse to strike rally sites even before violent or destructive actions have taken place and announcing plans for a strict response before the strike began not only violate the principle of freedom of association, but also serve to restrict workers’ exercise of basic civil liberties.   

 ^[1] The Committee has requested the Korean government to take the necessary measures to: (i) ensure that “self-employed” workers, such as heavy goods vehicle drivers, fully enjoy freedom of association rights, in particular the right to join the organizations of their own choosing; (ii) to hold consultations to this end with all the parties involved with the aim of finding a mutually acceptable solution so as to ensure that workers who are self-employed could fully enjoy trade union rights under Conventions Nos 87 and 98 for the purpose of furthering and defending their interest, including by the means of collective bargaining...