AAFES stymied in effort to resolve Yongsan taxi dispute (xpost from Veterans)

[unhappycamper]

AAFES stymied in effort to resolve Yongsan taxi dispute
By Ashley Rowland, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, May 30, 2008

SEOUL — The top AAFES official in Seoul said Wednesday the agency wants to hire a third taxi company to work at U.S. Army Garrison-Yongsan, but can’t find one that provides the same services as the largest on-base taxi company.

Drivers with that company, World Cup Arirang Tourism Co., have been on a partial strike over a salary dispute with its management since late April, sometimes not answering dispatches or not driving.

As of Wednesday, the drivers had been on full strike for eight days, and officials didn’t know how long it would last, said Shawn Dorcy, general manager for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service at Yongsan.

AAFES is "contractually applying pressure" on World Cup’s management to end the strike, he said.

"If we terminate the contract, there are issues like the ($3) flat-fee fare on Yongsan, English-speaking dispatch services, and the knowledge that the World Cup drivers have of the USAG-Yongsan footprint that we would be losing out on," Dorcy said. "Those are issues that most of the companies downtown are not used to dealing with, in the Korean economy."


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55184