South Korea’s shipping industry has been dealt another major blow today with around 7,000 unionised truck drivers staging a walkout this morning over reform plans the government announced earlier in the year.
Transport Minister Kang Ho-in called the strike illegal and said that unions were only using modernisation plans as an excuse. “The government will sternly deal with this unjustified strike by the union of truck drivers in accordance with the law and principle,” Kang said, according to Yonhap news.
The government plan fuelling the action is a move to loosen controls on the number of trucks used for moving containers to address a shortage.
South Korea is already mired in logistics chaos since the bankruptcy of Hanjin Shipping. Port of Busan is said to be filled with containers from Hanjin ships that have failed to reach their destination and is likely to be at a standstill from the strike.
Containers shipments by truck are expected to drop by around 32% while the strike continues, compounded further by a long-running strike by workers in the Korean Railway Workers’ Union.
