SEOUL -- South Korean police surrounded wanted leaders of an illegal strike by electricity workers in Seoul cathedral as the stoppage entered a second week. Religious authorities also stepped up pressure on the unknown number of labor leaders in the grounds of Myongdong Cathedral, cutting the electricity supply to their tents. Police are hunting 24 leaders of the strike, which the government has declared illegal. But activists of the Korean Power Plant Industry Union vowed to defy attempts to force members to go back to work. They said the strike by some 5,300 power workers would go on until the government drops a plan to privatize the electricity industry. State power firms sacked 47 union leaders for defying an order to report back to work by Saturday. First on the dismissal list was 52 unionists, but five, including three union negotiators, were later excluded. Electricity workers went on strike with other state workers last week opposing the sell off of their firms. But gas and railway employees went back to work after winning concessions from the government over privatization and working hours. Police said Monday they detained 11 railway union leaders at the weekend after their two-day strike last week, which was also declared illegal. Non-union employees have been drafted to run power plants, but concerns are growing over a possible energy shortfall. Power Union leader Lee Ho-Dong is holed up at Myongdong Cathedral while police have launched a nationwide hunt for other leaders. Two Seoul police chiefs on Monday went to the cathedral and presented arrest warrants for the unionists to priests who opposed the use of force. At the request of the priests, police did not break in but have surrounded the church with riot police and plain clothes officers. In previous decades, the cathedral has been a sanctuary for pro-democracy activists and unionists during crackdowns. But now the church hierarchy also wants the union activists to leave. ----------------------------------------------

the wanted power workers union leaders say that if they leave the premises they would be arrested immediately by the hundreds of waiting police. but in the face of complaints from worshippers, the church has asked the unionists to leave. on Sunday night, church authorities cut the power supply to the tents used by the unionists in the church compound. the move followed a second letter in a week asking them to leave. in a recent interview with afp, vice rector kim oh-seok acknowledged myongdong's "significant role in providing shelter for pro-democracy activists in the 1970s and 1980s when they had no place to express their desire for democracy." but he said unions "have grown to become mammoth bodies with power" far removed from the activist refugees of the past. "unions can struggle for what they want in a lawful space now, and so it is anachronistic for unions to come here. unions should change their way of demonstrating." south korean electricity workers oppose privatization plan and have also demanded the reinstatement of dismissed workers. the government separated thermal power operations from korea electric power corp. (kepco) in april last year ahead of privatization. kepco still controls power transmission, distribution and nuclear power operations.