South Korea Seoul Bus Workers Cancel Strike After Last-Minute Wage Deal

The union representing Seoul bus workers canceled a planned strike on Wednesday after reaching a last-minute agreement with management to raise wages by 3.2%. According to Sina Finance, the union and management held nearly 12 hours of marathon talks at the regional labor relations committee and reached agreement at 1:50 a.m. local time on Wednesday. Under the deal, wages will rise 3.2% in 2026, compared with a 2.9% increase last year. The union had planned a general strike to begin at 4 a.m. Wednesday, when the first buses were scheduled to depart, but all bus routes were operating normally in the morning. The main sticking point in the talks was how to calculate hourly pay after a fixed bonus is included in base wages. The two sides did not resolve that issue and agreed to postpone the calculation method until the Supreme Court rules on related cases later this year. The union had sought to calculate base pay on 176 working hours per month and demanded a 7.85% wage increase. Bus companies and the Seoul city government rejected the request, saying the method would amount to an effective increase of about 16%. Seoul city estimated that every 1% wage increase would add about 14 billion won in annual costs. If the union's demands were fully accepted, the city's bus system annual deficit could double to about 1 trillion won.