SEOUL (AFP) - Thousands of South Korean truck drivers Saturday voted to go on strike, demanding better working conditions and wage hikes, union members said.

The 15,000-strong national union of truckers voted for the collective action, said a spokesman for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, including 7,000 union members who had gathered in Daejeon City, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Seoul.

Union leaders will decide when the planned action will take place, said the spokesman.

The truckers will demand better working conditions, the reinstatement of dismissed union activists and the withdrawal of wage cuts imposed amid a global economic downturn, Yonhap news agency said.

A week-long strike by the truckers in June last year hit the country's trade-dependent economy hard, causing an estimated 7.2 billion dollars of missed imports and exports.