Hyundai Heavy workers end weeklong strike after tentative deal

Unionized workers at Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., South Korea's top shipbuilder, stopped their weeklong walkout after a tentative deal was struck, the union said Wednesday.

The workers started their strike on July 6, occupying a shipbuilding crane in Ulsan, 414 kilometers southeast of Seoul, to press the management to offer tangible proposals after the wage deal fell through.

The tentative deal includes a basic pay raise of 41,000 won ($35.6) for 2020, reversing a wage freeze that was included in the tentative deal signed in late March.

The labor and management also reached an agreement to cancel all kinds of bilateral accusations related to the strike.

"As the tentative deal was concluded last night, the full strike, including the occupation of a shipbuilding crane, has ended," Park Ju-cheol, a union representative, said.

The 8,500-member labor union will put the tentative deal to a vote of its members Friday, Park said.

If the members give a green light to the deal, the labor and management will end their 26-month-long stalled wage deal.

In February and April, the workers rejected two tentative wage deals for 2019 and 2020.

The first tentative agreement included a basic pay raise of 46,000 won for 2019, a wage freeze for 2020 and the cancellation of a lawsuit against union members who opposed the creation of a holding company in 2019.

The second tentative agreement entailed a special bonus of 2 million won that was not included in the first tentative agreement, as the management's offer for a basic pay raise failed to meet the workers' demands.

In mid-2019, Hyundai Heavy Industries was spun off into two entities-- Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (KSOE), a holding company, and the holding company's wholly owned operating company Hyundai Heavy Industries -- to acquire Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) .

KSOE has been pushing ahead with the plan to acquire the country's No. 2 shipbuilder, DSME. (Yonhap)