Thousands of South Korean workers rally for better conditions

AHN YOUNG-JOON/AP

Workers shout slogans during a rally demanding job security in Seoul, South Korea, on July 3, 2021.

Thousands of South Korean workers staged a rally in downtown Seoul to demand better conditions, video images showed on Saturday, defying a government ban and shrugging off warnings that their protest could ignite a new wave of the coronavirus.

As South Korea battles a spike in infections fueled by the highly infectious Delta variant, officials had denied permission for the protest, with Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum urging leaders of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions to cancel it, according to Reuters.

Marchers wearing masks blocked some of the main streets in the central district of Jongno, holding up signs with slogans such as “Stop restructuring!” and “Let's go! General strike!” video from the Yonhap News Agency showed.

The protest, which the union said drew as many as 8,000 participants, backed demands for wage hikes and measures to prevent accidents.

But plans for the gathering had provoked concern about a repeat of the events of last summer, after a massive rally traced to a church sparked a second wave of infections nationwide.

However, the union pushed ahead with Saturday’s rally after a last-minute change of venue from the financial centre of Yeouido, where police had set up a barricade of buses and checkpoints to deter protesters.