Gyeonggi's 4,130 buses call off strike... dawn agreement ensures normal service from first runs
Labor and management at 29 Gyeonggi Province bus companies, representing 4,130 buses, withdrew a planned general strike after reaching an agreement on wages and a collective bargaining agreement (a labor-management pact setting working conditions) at a final mediation meeting of the Gyeonggi Regional Labor Relations Commission, a body that mediates labor disputes, in the early hours of the 30th. Buses resumed normal operations starting with the first runs that day. The Gyeonggi Regional Auto Workers' Union under the Federation of Korean Auto Workers' Unions (part of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions) and the employers negotiated from 3 p.m. on the 29th, and the mediation deadline of the Gyeonggi Regional Labor Relations Commission, originally set for midnight on the 29th, was extended by three hours to 3 a.m. on the 30th at the employers' request. The two sides reached agreement around 2:32 a.m. on the 30th at the final mediation meeting held in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon.
The buses slated for strike covered 854 routes and 4,130 vehicles belonging to 29 companies across 14 cities and counties in Gyeonggi Province, including Suwon, Yongin, Goyang, and Seongnam — roughly 46 percent of all buses in the province. Had talks collapsed, nearly half the region's buses could have stopped running. Sixty-three routes with 942 wide-area buses running between Seoul and Gyeonggi were also included in the mediation. However, companies under KD Transportation Group, the largest bus operator in the region, were excluded from this round of mediation as they were conducting separate negotiations of their own.
The two sides agreed to raise per-kilometer fares by 3.2 percent each for semi-public and privately operated routes, with retroactive back pay to be paid by the end of February next year. They also agreed to grant two consecutive days off per week with fixed days, provide flu vaccinations for all union members, and offer three days of paid reward leave annually for accident-free drivers. The issue of 'wage parity with Seoul buses' was left unresolved, to be discussed later.
The biggest sticking point between labor and management was how to implement the earlier tripartite agreement to 'close the wage gap with Seoul bus drivers by January 1, 2026.' The union demanded wage increases of 21.56 percent for semi-public routes and 30 percent for private routes, reflecting the ruling in a lawsuit over Seoul buses' standard wages. Management, citing Gyeonggi Province's deteriorating finances, balked at steep wage increases and had maintained a position of freezing wages on privately operated routes.
Gyeonggi Province and local governments prepared emergency transport measures, deploying chartered and official buses at 160 key hubs ahead of the potential strike. The Seoul city government planned to add a total of 23 temporary trains on subway lines 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8 during rush hours, and to extend commute-hour intervals on 98 Seoul city bus routes by one hour each in the morning (6–9 a.m.) and evening (5–8 p.m.).
