Kakao to Hold First Strike Since Founding Tomorrow at 10 A.M.; Management Prepares Response Plan

The Kakao labor union is set to launch its first strike since the company's founding tomorrow (June 10).

This marks the first strike in the 20 years since the establishment of Iwilab, the predecessor to Kakao, in 2006.

According to the IT industry, labor circles, and police, the Kakao union plans to hold a partial strike for approximately five hours between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. tomorrow and conduct a rally for union members around the Kakao Pangyo Agit in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.

During the strike, the union is expected to denounce the management's operation of the company and management failures, while demanding job security.

As labor and management have failed to narrow their differences over wage and collective agreement negotiations, the union is also expected to demand improvements to the compensation system linked to these issues.

The union is also reported to be planning a march from in front of the Kakao Pangyo Agit to U-Space, a distance of about 800 meters, between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. during the strike.

The march will utilize one lane of Daewangpangyo-ro.

Although the union initially reported to the police that 2,000 members would hold a rally from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., the police estimate that around 600 members will actually participate.

As a peaceful march is expected, the police plan to deploy one company, approximately 80 officers, to manage traffic safety.

However, it is expected that this strike will not significantly disrupt the operation of major services such as KakaoTalk and Kakao Pay.

This is because, due to the nature of the IT industry, essential personnel required for service operation are maintained, and major service systems are automated.

Kakao stated that it will establish a response system to maintain service stability.

A Kakao management official said, "Kakao is a platform company that connects the daily lives of countless users and supports the businesses of small merchants and partners," adding, "Protecting service stability so that there is no inconvenience to users under any circumstances is an important responsibility of Kakao."

The official added, "The company will put in place the necessary response systems and do its best to ensure stable service operations."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.