MBC labor union to go on strike

SEOUL (Yonhap) - Unionized workers at the nation's public broadcaster MBC said on Thursday that they will stage an indefinite general strike early next week as they failed to compromise with the management over wage and other sensitive issues.
The MBC labor union said workers will not report to work starting on Monday.
The announcement came a day after the management failed to accept requests from the union to take measures to ensure impartiality and give more autonomous rights to producers of the broadcaster's news programs, the union said.
Details of the collective wage bargaining were not given.
During negotiations the company also rejected the union's demand to withdraw its decision to take disciplinary measures against producers of a controversial TV program critical of the Lee Myung-bak administration's decision to resume U.S. beef imports in 2008, the union said.
Four producers and a script writer from the company were accused of defaming Lee's Cabinet ministers who allowed the resumption of American beef imports by exaggerating the danger of ingesting the beef in an April 2008 episode of the program.
They were eventually cleared by the Supreme Court of the defamation charges early this month although it recognized part of the episode included some erroneous information. The company, however, has refused to lift its disciplinary actions against the workers, saying they deserve punishment for the erroneous report.
The union is also strongly against the management's plan to merge small local branches considered uncompetitive.