Hyundai Motor union launches first full strike in 10 years

Workers on the morning shift leave early through the Myeongchon gate of Hyundai Motor's Ulsan factory in Buk-gu, Ulsan, on Thursday after a four-hour partial strike. The union launched a full eight-hour strike on Friday for the first time in 10 years. [Yonhap]

Hyundai Motor's union launched a full-day strike Friday, escalating its wage dispute with management to a level not seen in a decade. With labor-management negotiations deadlocked, the walkout brings cumulative production downtime to 120 hours, and losses are expected to approach several trillion won.

Under the union's full-strike order, all production lines at the Ulsan, Jeonju and Asan factories ground to a halt for the day. Morning-shift production workers, who normally begin at 6:45 a.m., did not report for duty, nor did afternoon-shift workers scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. The strike is estimated to involve about 39,000 workers, including both production and office staff.

An exterior view of Hyundai Motor's Yangjae headquarters building. [Hyundai Motor]

Union leaders and delegates also traveled to Seoul to put direct pressure on the company. The Korean Metal Workers' Union, which the Hyundai Motor chapter belongs to, held a joint auto-industry strike rally in front of Hyundai Motor Group's headquarters in Yangjae-dong, Seoul. Parts suppliers and subcontractor unions joined the rally, demanding not only an extension of the retirement age at Hyundai Motor Group but also the reversal of parts procurement price cuts and direct negotiations with the parent company.

The union has staged two- to six-hour partial strikes repeatedly since July to pressure management, but Friday's eight-hour walkout is the first full-day strike. It is also the first full-day strike since Sept. 26, 2016, during that year's wage negotiations — a gap of 10 years.

Cumulative strike hours stand at 60, but because morning and afternoon shifts have each walked out separately, total production line downtime is double that, at 120 hours. Losses are projected to reach several trillion won. Hyundai Motor earlier said the 60 hours of strikes in July caused a production loss of 42,510 vehicles. Based on last year's standalone sales and domestic output figures, the average selling price per vehicle works out to 42.65 million won ($30,600), meaning cumulative sales losses through Friday are estimated at close to 3.6 trillion won.

An exterior view of Hyundai Motor's Ulsan factory. [Hyundai Motor]

Losses are expected to grow further as the union has announced additional four-hour partial strikes on Monday and Tuesday. The year in which Hyundai Motor's union staged the most strikes over the past decade was 2016, when cumulative strike hours on a union basis reached 106 and production disruption on a line basis totaled 212 hours.

Wage negotiations between labor and management remain deadlocked. This year the union is demanding a 50 percent increase in bonuses, reinstatement of members dismissed for illegal activities during past union actions, and an extension of the retirement age. Management maintains that these issues fall under collective bargaining agreements and are not subject to this year's wage talks. It also argues there are no grounds to reinstate workers who were lawfully dismissed, and that a retirement-age extension — a matter that should first be addressed by lawmakers — is not something labor and management can easily settle on their own.

The two sides resumed talks Tuesday after a gap of more than 40 days but failed to narrow their differences. The company proposed discussing reinstatement of dismissed workers at year-end and addressing the timing of a retirement-age extension through a supplementary agreement immediately after any relevant law is amended, but the union rejected the offer, calling it "nothing more than a show." The union plans to convene a central dispute committee Tuesday to discuss further strike action if the company does not put forward a new proposal.

eyre@heraldcorp.com