Chairman Kim Ji-hyung of the Economic, Social and Labor Council visited the Korean Automobile and Transport Workers’ Federation (hereinafter referred to as the “KATWF”) under the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) on February 27 and held a meeting with its executive leadership.

Established in 1963, the KATWF represents workers in transportation sectors closely related to everyday life, including city buses, intercity buses, express buses, chartered buses, and village buses. The federation consists of 472 unions with approximately 82,000 members nationwide, of whom 93.4% (about 75,000) are drivers.

The meeting was arranged to share key issues related to strengthening the public nature of the bus transportation sector and establishing a sustainable industrial foundation, as well as to directly hear voices from the field.

Chairman Kim stated, “The discussions accumulated through the Committee on Bus Transportation Industry under the Economic, Social and Labor Council in 2020 serve as a meaningful example of sector-level social dialogue.” He added, “Based on the discussions from today’s meeting, we will carefully review the tasks that labor, management, and government should work on together to strengthen the public nature and stability of bus transportation services.”

The Economic, Social and Labor Council will continue to visit affiliated organizations of the two major labor confederations and make efforts to listen to on-site opinions on various sectoral social dialogue agendas.