Scab Kills Passenger In Korea Railway Strike

Scab Kills Passenger In Korea Railway Strike
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2013/12/116_148068.html
Passenger killed in railway workers' strike

By Kim Jae-won

The death of an 84-year-old subway passenger Sunday evening is being blamed on a 19-year-old transportation student brought in to work the doors of the train as a substitute for striking rail workers.

According to police and the Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL), the elderly woman was hit in the head when she got stuck in the automatic doors of the train at around 9 p.m. at the Government Complex Gwacheon Station of Line 4. She was taken to a nearby hospital where she died soon after arrival.

Thousands of unionized workers have been on strike for a week in protest of the company’s decision to set up an affiliate which will run a new bullet train service separately.

The crewmember who shut the door and failed to recognize the problem was a student at the Korea National University of Transportation, a temporary substitute hired to fill the job left vacant by striking workers.

Police said a station security guard told them he signaled there was a problem with the doors, but the warning was either ignored or not seen.

KORAIL confirmed that the company hired 238 students from the college to replace crewmembers who have joined the strike, but argued that the job does not require any special qualifications because they only act as assistants to the train operators.

“The crewmember of a subway train does not require special qualifications. He is in charge of managing the doors of the train and making announcements to passengers,” the company said in a statement.

The company also said that it was too early to say the exact cause of the accident because nothing has been confirmed and police are still investigating.

However, the labor union blamed the company for hiring unqualified students for the jobs of crewmembers.

“In the past, only employees who have at least five years experience are qualified to take the test to become crewmembers. The company is responsible for the accident because they hired unqualified crew,” said Choi Eun-cheol, a spokesman for the union.

In the meantime, President Park Geun-hye expressed concern over the rail workers’ strike, saying the weeklong walkout has no justification because it came despite repeated assurances from the government that it has no intention to privatize a planned subsidiary of KORAIL.

“It is truly regrettable that the rail workers’ union is on an illegal strike, taking the nation’s economic arteries hostage,” she said. “There is no justification at all to inflict damage on the national economy while not trusting the government’s announcement.”

The Seoul Western District Court issued arrest warrants for six unionized rail workers Monday for refusing to respond to a summons as part of an investigation into the ongoing strike. The summons came after KORAIL filed a charge against 190 union members for instigating what it called the “illegal walkout.”

More than 6,500 unionized workers of KORAIL went on strike last week.