UIWANG, South Korea– The minor Justice Party expressed support for striking truckers Monday and urged the government to meet their demand to make minimum freight rates permanent.

Lawmakers of the progressive party met with leaders of the Cargo Truckers Solidarity Union on the fifth day of their strike, amid the government’s threat to invoke an executive order to force them to return to work.

The lawmakers said the union had no choice but to strike because the government broke an agreement to discuss extending the minimum rate system and expanding its scope.

“The government, which reneged on the promise, should be responsible for all the damage caused by this strike,” the lawmakers said during the meeting.
Floor leader Lee Eun-ju and two other lawmakers, Sim Sang-jeung and Bae Jin-kyo, attended the meeting at the union’s office in Uiwang, 25 kilometers south of Seoul.

The lawmakers and strike leaders denounced the government’s plan to invoke a return-to-work order.

“The government is threatening with talk of the return-to-work order, and this will become only a spark for workers’ anger. We will not comply with the order,” Lee Bong-joo, leader of the union, said.

Later in the day, the lawmakers visited a truckers’ rally in a port in Pyeongtaek, 65 kilometers south of Seoul.

They declared the party’s solidarity with the strikers and vowed to join in fighting against the return-to-work order if it is invoked.

Source: Yonhap News Agency