▲ Gyeonggi Province bus labor and management final mediation meeting
Labor and management at 29 bus companies in Gyeonggi Province, standing at the brink of a general strike, have agreed to extend the labor dispute mediation deadline until early this morning (October 30) and continue last-minute negotiations.
According to the Gyeonggi Province Automobile Labor Union under the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) and other sources, labor and management agreed to extend the final mediation deadline of the Gyeonggi Regional Labor Relations Commission—originally set to expire at midnight on October 29—by three hours until 3:00 AM today at the request of management.
Accordingly, labor and management, who have been negotiating since 3:00 PM yesterday, plan to resume the meeting at 2:00 AM today following a recess and internal discussions.
If the two sides fail to find common ground by the extended deadline and mediation ultimately breaks down, the union will enter a full-scale general strike starting with the first buses today, as previously announced.
The strike targets 4,130 buses (across 854 routes) belonging to 29 companies in the province, including Suwon, Yongin, Goyang, and Seongnam. This also includes 942 buses across 63 metropolitan bus routes operating between Seoul and the metropolitan area.
Companies belonging to KD Transportation Group, the largest bus operator in the province, are excluded as they are conducting separate negotiations.
Labor and management are locked in a last-minute tug-of-war over the implementation plan for reaching "wage parity with Seoul buses by January 1, 2026," which is the core issue.
Initially, reflecting the aftermath of the Seoul bus ordinary wage lawsuit ruling, the union demanded a 21.56% wage increase for the semi-public system and 30% for the private system, along with shortened working hours.
However, in the final negotiations, the union reportedly stepped back from this year's increase rate and instead put forward a revised proposal aimed at securing a firm commitment to follow-up implementation.
The condition is that labor and management jointly establish accurate standards for calculating the wage gap through external consulting to reflect it next year, and apply equal pay accordingly once the ruling on the Seoul bus ordinary wage lawsuit—currently in the first trial—is finalized in the future.
On the other hand, management has expressed reluctance citing the worsening financial conditions of Gyeonggi Province, and negotiations are reportedly facing difficulties as guarantees at the provincial level are required for such follow-up implementation.
In preparation for a breakdown in negotiations, Gyeonggi Province, local governments, and the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education plan to operate emergency transportation countermeasures headquarters. If the strike materializes, they plan to deploy chartered and official buses to 160 major hubs and implement measures such as allowing schools to autonomously adjust their school start and dismissal times.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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