Seoul, March 8:

A militant South Korean union threatened on Wednesday to launch a nationwide general strike next month against a controversial bill aimed at freeing-up the labour market.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), which flexed its muscles with a nationwide strike a week ago, said a new strike would take place from April 3 to 14.

The walkout on Tuesday and Thursday last week shut down top automakers Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors and other key firms, forcing parliament to put off voting on the bill until April.

The bill is aimed at allowing employers greater flexibility to use temporary and sub-contracted workers, a move the union says strikes a blow at job security.

The union also accused the government of President Roh Moo-Hyun, a former pro-labour dissident lawyer, of launching a general crackdown on the labour movement.

“The government has been abusing its rights to emergency arbitration (in industrial disputes) in order to crack down hard on the labour movement,” the KCTU statement said. “We will stage an all-out general strike from April 3.”

The union specifically criticised the government’s handling a railway strike last week. Some 16,000 workers at a state railway monopoly struck last week, demanding that union leaders fired during past strike action be re-hired and that 500 female staff on high-speed KTX trains get improved job security and benefits.

They called the action off after three days when police launched a manhunt for union leaders and management threatened to sue all participants in the strike. The KCTU also demanded a halt to free trade agreement negotiations with the United States, which it said would compel South Korea to open wider its domestic markets to foreign imports.