South Korea power strike nears accord

Workers clash with riot police during a demonstration to support the ongoing strike by power workers

SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- Government power station workers are near an agreement to end their six-week-old strike and have cancelled a planned general strike, a spokesman for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) told CNN.

Workers at state-run power generation plants struck February 25 to protest government plans to privatize the electricity generation industry.

Final details of the agreement were expected to be completed shortly, the spokesman said.

As a result, plans by more than 120,000 workers at 400 workplaces to strike Tuesday to support the unions at state-run facilities were put on hold with the expectation they would be canceled altogether, the KCTU announced.

It had been feared the sympathy walk out Tuesday would have meant the strike spreading to crucial export industries, including stoppages by tens of thousands of workers at automakers and shipbuilders.

The KCTU is demanding the government halt plans to begin selling state-run power monopoly Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) operations this year as part of a privatisation drive being spearheaded by President Kim Dae-jung's government.

Unions fear privatisation will bring job cuts and higher power prices, while the government says the sale of utilities has already won parliament's approval and is not negotiable. It says the action breaks a law banning public-sector strikes.

-- CNN Seoul Bureau Chief Sohn Jie-Ae contributed to this report