Korean Police Clash With Strikers

Riot police stormed plants of South Korea’s largest auto parts maker to break up an 18-day-old strike by thousands of workers protesting layoffs. In coordinated dawn assaults at seven Mando Machinery Corp. plants around the country, some 8,000 riot police used bulldozers and tear gas to break through barricades and disperse strikers. MBC-TV said one worker was taken to a hospital after falling from a fourth-floor building in an apparent suicide attempt. His condition was not immediately known. Police quickly overpowered workers in five smaller plants, but fierce fighting erupted at the company’s two main plants in Asan and Pyongtaek in central South Korea, where about 800 workers were holed up. Mando’s 4,300 unionized workers went on strike Aug. 17 to protest the company’s plan to dismiss 1,090 employees. Mando is a monopoly supplier of air conditioners, heaters, alternators and other key components for Hyundai Motor Co. and other domestic auto makers. Mando is a subsidiary of the Halla group, South Korea’s 12th-largest conglomerate.