Hyundai Motor loses $130.3 mil. from Saturday strike

Ongoing strikes at Korea's largest carmaker is having a financial toll on the company.

Hyundai Motor is estimated to have lost 145.2 billion won ($130.3 million)Saturday as its workers boycotted that day's overtime shifts, sources said.

According to the sources, Hyundai Motor failed to produce 7,104 cars Saturday as its unionized workers did not show up to work for their weekend work shift.

The move came after Hyundai's 46,000 union workers staged a partial strike Friday. Hyundai workers also launched a partial strike on Tuesday and Wednesday, costing the carmaker 85.6 billion won in lost production.

"We are well aware of the financial losses, but we will press on until our demands have been met," said one member of the Hyundai union who declined to be identified.

The union and the management have been at odds over the union's demands for, a performance-based bonus equal to 30 percent of the company's net profit last year, which reached 9 trillion won.

The union also called for each child of a worker to receive 10 million won if they choose to enter the workforce following high school, as well as a 130,498 won increase in basic salaries and a one-year extension of the retirement age to 61.

Labor disputes at Hyundai Motor have been an almost annual event in the past two decades. Its workers have downed their tools every year since 1986 except for in 1994, 2009, 2010 and 2011. A strike last year cost the carmaker some 1.7 trillion won in lost production.

By Kim Ji-hyun and news reports

(jemmie@heraldcorp.com)