Hyundai Motor workers stage first full strike in 12 years

[THE INVESTOR] The Hyundai Motor production lines came to a complete stop on Sept. 26 with the labor union staging the first full strike since 2004.

The union began a full strike with the first shift that starts at 6:45 a.m. The workers will also halt production for six hours on a daily basis starting Sept. 27 until the end of the month.

In this year’s wages negotiations, the union has staged 19 partial strikes. The company estimates the damages to be 101,400 units or 2.23 trillion won (US$ 2.02 billion) in lost production. 

The workers are demanding more in terms of regular wages.

The company and the union had reached a tentative agreement on Aug. 24 that included a 58,000-won monthly raise, 3.3 million won and 350 percent of monthly pay as incentive, and 10 Hyundai Motor shares. On Sept. 23, Hyundai Motor closed at 142,000 won.

The agreement, however, was rejected on Aug. 27, with 78.05 percent of the unionists voting against it.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)