Anchor: The main umbrella organization of South Korean trade unions says it will stage a massive strike Wednesday to protest planned labor reforms. They are opposing an expansion of labor flexibility that businesses say they need to remain productive.  
Kurt Achin has more.

Report:

[NAT SOUND: Korean Confederation of Trade Unions event (Nov. 20)]
"Stop labor law reform!"  
"Stop labor law reform!"

Korean labor union members shouted “Stop labor reform” in an event announcing Wednesday’s general strike, which they say as many as 150-thousand workers will participate in nationwide.

Earlier this year, the government limited the maximum working hours per week to 52, in an effort to stem chronic overwork and stimulate domestic demand in the form of increased leisure spending.

It later permitted certain businesses to exceed that for a maximum of three months, as long as total average hours for the year were within the limit. That measure was a compromise for businesses that had spikes in seasonal workflows.

Now, the government is considering expanding that flex time period to six months. 

Kim Myung-hwan, chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions organizing the Wednesday strike, is dead set against that expansion. 

[Sound bite: Chairman Kim Myung-hwan - Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (Korean)]
"What is the government doing? What is the National Assembly doing as it is open but not doing business. It has to take the responsibility? It is threatening us, to agree to extending the flex time period within this year... "

Shin Se-don, economics professor at Seoul’s Sookmyung Women’s University, says the main threat is to union members’ paychecks.

[Sound bite: Economics Professor Shin Se-don -  Sookmyung Women's University (English)] 
“I think it is because of the real income issue, because by extending the period by six months, the possibility of getting more extra income through overtime will be reduced.”

It remains to be seen how effective Wednesday’s general strike will be in terms of getting the government to tap the brakes on labor reform. But Yang Jun-sok, economics professor at Catholic University in Seoul, predicts the government will be forced to make some sort of concession.

[Sound bite: Economics Professor Yang Jun-sok - Catholic University of Korea (English)] 
“The big question is how much. Given the Moon government’s affinity for the labor unions they’ll have to give up more than say a conservative government would. But they’ll have to give up something.”  

Yang points out that labor disputes of the past were often solved by simply bumping up wage levels. In a flagging economy where youth unemployment is rampant, the government has a more delicate problem to solve: reinvigorating business productivity while also trying to ensure livelihoods for members of the country’s most powerful labor collectives.
Kurt Achin, KBS World Radio News.