Union Heads Rebuff Party Chief in Seoul

SEOUL — The chairman of South Korea’s ruling party made a visit today to a Seoul cathedral where union leaders are being sheltered from arrest as they plot the biggest strike in the nation’s history.

But Lee Hong Koo was turned away by heads of the outlawed Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

Instead, he met the Roman Catholic cardinal of South Korea and was given a lecture on worker welfare.

“Get out! Get out!” workers chanted as the New Korea Party chairman pulled up in his limousine outside Myongdong Cathedral, where seven union leaders are directing strikes from a ramshackle tent.

A union official said strike leaders would meet with Lee only if the government revoked a labor law that has sparked industrial unrest and withdrew arrest warrants against them.

The law--passed by the government in a secret, predawn parliamentary session--makes it easier for companies to fire employees and threatens the nation’s tradition of lifetime job security.

The confederation has threatened to bring out all its 500,000 members Wednesday to join an all-out stoppage by the 1.2-million-strong Federation of Korean Trade Unions planned for Tuesday.

It is the first time the two union umbrella bodies have coordinated full-blown industrial action.

Journalists, shipyard workers, nurses, credit card company employees and assembly line workers are already striking. The wider strike Tuesday would include subway, phone company and national mint employees.

Already, the strike has forced South Korea’s largest car maker, Hyundai Motor Co., to shut its plant, saying it cannot afford to stay open after losing $465 million in production. Workers said they will ignore the shutdown and gather at the plant today.