Prior to the strike, he held a joint press conference in Seoul with opposition parties and civic and public organizations.

Speakers denounced the Lee Myung Bak "government" for hurling the security forces into cracking down on workers of the Hanjin Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., and the Yusong Enterprise in their actions to gain the right to existence.

Members of the Teachers Union are being deprived of the political and vital rights owing to the "government" suppression, they said.

The society where money is almighty should be replaced with a society centered on man, they said, stressing the people's actions for the right to existence would go on in the future.