-Caveat Lector- S. Korean Police, Strikers Clash By KYONG-HWA SEOK .c The Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Thousands of riot police marched onto a Seoul university campus Sunday, touching off violent clashes with striking subway workers and sympathizers who fought back with rocks and firebombs. Several workers were injured but none of them seriously, police said. The strikers are protesting government-ordered corporate reforms that are expected to result in mass layoffs. The subway strike was ruled illegal because it did not observe a mandatory 15-day cooling-off period. The government gave the striking subway workers until Monday to return to work or face automatic dismissal. ``About half of the striking subway workers have not returned to work. We'll start action against them,'' Seoul Mayor Ko Kun said after the 4 a.m. Monday deadline. Prime Minister Kim Jong-pil called an emergency meeting of Cabinet ministers Monday to discuss the next move. At state-run Seoul National University on Sunday, 2,000 riot police, backed by armored vehicles, marched 200 yards onto the sprawling campus to try to disperse 2,500 workers who have been holed up there for a week. About 100 workers and students fought back, wielding steel pipes and hurling rocks and firebombs. They fled after setting fire to wooden chairs and garbage bins piled up as barricades. A police helicopter cast its searchlights over the campus and broadcast warnings that workers would face arrest and punishment if they didn't disperse voluntarily. Police said their scare tactics were working. After two similar raids on Sunday, the number of workers at the school dropped from 5,000 to 1,000, they said. Still, strike leaders taking refuge at a Roman Catholic church in central Seoul were defiant. ``There will be no backdown until our demand for no layoffs is accepted,'' Suk Chi-soon, head of the 11,000-member Seoul subway union, said earlier. Tension appeared to ease considerably after the 40,000-member union of Korea Telecom, the nation's main telephone operator, abruptly decided to shelve their strike plans four hours before they were to have taken effect. The telephone union gave no formal explanation, but local media said the union's leaders believed that they had failed to build consensus among rank-and-file members for their strike plan. The leadership later resigned. The telephone union's decision dealt a serious blow to plans by a powerful umbrella labor group to escalate protests drastically this week in support of the one-week-old Seoul subway strike. But the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which claims a membership of 500,000, said that more than 30,000 auto and shipbuilding workers will go ahead with strike plans this week. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
