![]() The new government of President Yoon Suk-yeol does not control parliament and says it is up to the truckers to negotiate a deal with bosses and the opposition to extend the minimum wage guarantees. ![]() Being independent contractors, they say it guards against fuel price fluctuations and exploitation by powerful businesses. The union says the measure is crucial to ensure truckers work in sustainable conditions. The truckers' demands center on the extension of a 2020 measure dubbed the "Safe Trucking Freight Rate, which ensures minimum pay and is set to expire this year. He has borrowed from his in-laws to pay interest on his loans and says a $800 monthly income from his wife’s part-time job at a nursery is not enough to raise three children. Since April, his monthly fuel bill has leapt about $1,000. Working as many as 15 hours a day, father-of-three Kang says he earns about $2,300 a month. The action has paralyzed ports and cargo terminals in South Korea - a major supplier of autos, batteries, semiconductors, smartphones and electronics goods - further stretching global supply chains already disrupted by China's COVID-19 curbs and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The truckers are striking for the seventh day on Monday, protesting against rising fuel prices and demanding minimum pay guarantees. ![]() ![]() "When the other side of the world is getting better, why is our side of the world going backward and getting worse?" he asked. Kang, 50, said in an interview he had no choice but to join the strike even though he was not a member of the union. In the United States, new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations due to the coronavirus have plummeted from all-time highs hit a month ago, though nearly 2,000 people per day are still dying from the disease and the number of total deaths is closing in on 1 million since the pandemic began.Kang Myung-gil parked his truck last week and stopped hauling products from a unit of Samsung Electronics 005930.KS and other major South Korean companies to the port of Incheon, joining a strike that has hit industrial hubs and ports.Īt stake is his family's livelihood, Kang said, as soaring fuel prices and other costs make it impossible for him to go on while big business can pass on the burden of charging higher prices to customers like himself. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked rarely used emergency powers to end the protests, and Canadian police restored a sense of normalcy in Ottawa over the weekend. In Canada, protests choked streets in Ottawa for more than three weeks and blocked the busiest land crossing between Canada and the United States for six days. We're the power, not them," said Bolus, a trucker who owns a tow truck company. "They are not going to intimidate us and they are not going to threaten us. Organizer Bob Bolus told Washington television station WJLA that his convoy has no intention of breaking laws or blocking traffic, but warned this could happen if their demands regarding pandemic mandates and the cost of fuel are not meant. Another convoy, made up of a single 18-wheeler and a handful of pickup trucks and SUVs, left Scranton, Pennsylvania - Biden's hometown - on Wednesday morning and was headed to the Beltway sometime during the afternoon.
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