By Sedat Durel, leader of the Workers’ Democracy Party (IDP), the Turkish section of the IWU-FI.
May 18, 2026. In April, truck drivers affiliated with the KPTU-TruckSol union in Korea won a major victory against the platform economy and the self-employment model, following a militant strike and a nationwide mobilization that escalated to the point where a worker was killed after being crushed under a truck during a police intervention.
The striking workers of KPTU-TruckSol were working at the lowest layer of a four-tier subcontracting chain. Under this precarious model, they covered all operational costs themselves, made two trips per day in order to survive, worked more than 13 hours a day, and as a result earned only around 3 million Korean won per month (approximately 2,000 US dollars). Making only one trip — a humane working condition — meant operating at a loss. In addition, drivers received no extra payment for night work; they worked 25–26 days per month with almost no rest. While being exposed to extreme weather conditions, they also carried out loading and unloading duties themselves.
The KPTU-TruckSol organized among truck workers whom the company exploited even further through its self-employment model. After BGF Retail rejected the demand for collective bargaining with its anti-worker and anti-union stance, KPTU-TruckSol began a strike on April 5.
The “Self-Employed Workers” Model
Subcontracted labor has become a model that the bourgeoisie across the world — especially multinational imperialist corporations — has strongly embraced in order to intensify exploitation and keep the working class unorganized. Although trade unions and the working class have won certain gains in struggles against subcontracting around the world, the bourgeoisie has elevated this brutal regime to a new level through the “self-employed workers” model, developed alongside subcontracting.
Under this model, couriers and drivers are legally classified as self-employed individuals, while companies sign contracts without bearing responsibilities such as job security, insurance, and similar obligations. Since these workers generally establish companies in their own names, they are legally regarded as employers themselves, and are therefore deprived of the right to union membership.
Since January, TruckSol CU members had been demanding collective bargaining with BGF Retail, while BGF Retail reduced the drivers’ trips to one and, through BGF Logis, filed compensation lawsuits against the members.
The Killing of Seo Gwang-seok and Legal Barriers
As we are accustomed to seeing all around the world, the anti-worker and anti-union intervention of the police and the government against this strategic strike did not take long. While clashes with the police began in mid-April, on April 20 the police attacked the workers who were continuing their strike strongly. During the intervention, at 11:45 a.m., a worker named Seo Gwang-seok was killed after being crushed under a truck. Immediately after this tragic loss, the Ministry of Employment and Labor stated that the deaths occurring during the protest of KPTU-TruckSol constituted a situation “beyond the issue of principal employer-subcontractor collective bargaining under Article 2 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act,” and described TruckSol members as “small business owners” or “self-employed workers.” With this statement, it became clearly evident that the company, the government, and the police were directly responsible for the killing of our brother Seo Gwang-seok. The attack on the strike of KPTU-TruckSol was in fact aimed at denying subcontracted workers across Korea recognition as workers and usurping their collective bargaining rights.
In fact, however, self-employed workers and workers employed within the framework of the platform economy have successively won the right to unionize and to engage in collective bargaining in Korea through strategic lawsuits and campaigns for expansion of labour law coverage. While the government and capital have traditionally labelled KPTU-TruckSol as an extra legal union, it is in fact a division of a legal registered union, the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union. Recent jurisprudence and amendments expanding the scope of trade union membership and collective bargaining delegitimize such claims, a position the Minister of Employment and Labour eventually recognized during the course of the strike.
The strike also brought to light the need for the expansion of the Safe Rates system. While this system guarantees basic pay standards for some self-employed truck drivers it does not yet apply to the retail sector. If the CU drivers had been covered by Safe Rates they may not have had to go on strike in the first place.
International Solidarity with the Strike
Following the killing of Seo Gwang-seok, the strike turned into a nationwide mobilization and continued with statements of support from more than 20 international unions. Around 10,000 workers attended the rally organized by the union, and video messages from different parts of the world were also broadcast from the stage established at this rally and later during the a memorial rally on May 2 .
Among these messages were those sent from Türkiye by Sedat Durel on behalf of the TÜMTİS union, as well as messages from Juan Carlos Giordano, a FIT member of parliament from Argentina on behalf of the UIT, and from Rubén Darío Sobrero of the railway workers’ union.
TruckSol’s response to all these attacks was extremely strong and effective: the CU BGF logistics centers in Jinju, Jincheon, and Wonju were blockaded. On April 26 and 27, KPTU held press conferences, and on April 28 the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) organized mass rallies in Seoul and Jinju. On April 28 and 29, a two-day convoy was organized together with food delivery riders extending from the Ministry of Labor to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, then to the CU BGF resistance site in Jincheon, and finally to the Presidential Office.
The central emphasis of all these actions went beyond the demands of the CU BGF strike and focused nationally, in the name of Martyr Seo, on the recognition of the fundamental labor rights of self-employed and platform workers as well as the expansion of the Safe Rates System.
The Strike Won, and the Union Was Recognized
Following this powerful struggle, victories came one after another. On April 30, an agreement was reached to improve the wages and working conditions of CU BGF drivers. An apology and compensation for Martyr Seo Gwang-seok were won. These honorable victories were followed by the final repulsion of yet another attack: against BGF’s claim — which would also strengthen the hand of other companies — that TruckSol was not a legal union, the Seoul Labor Relations Commission ruled in a case against other distribution companies in a way that effectively recognized the legitimacy of TruckSol as an affiliated division of a legally registered union.
The union addressed the following message to the unions and federations that sent international solidarity following its victory: “Thank you once again for your solidarity. While born in tragedy, this victory should be shared by all and create a basis to build our fight for rights and standards for all workers, irrespective of employment status.”
The struggle in Korea once again reveals a crucial reality for the global class struggle. The Korean working class has recently resisted and prevailed under extraordinary conditions, and it has now also provided an important example of struggle against one of the most aggressive labor models of multinational corporations: the “self-employment” model.
As the International Workers’ Unity – Fourth International, we once again salute the heroic struggle of unions and their members who are fighting for the right to organize and to live with dignity. We will do everything in our power to ensure that the name of Seo Gwang-seok is known not only in Korea, but also by workers fighting against precariousness everywhere in the world. Going forward, we will continue to stand with militant unions in Korea in their resistance against corporations, with all the means at our disposal.
