Union's Guerrilla Strike... Renault Samsung's Strongest Measure: 'Indefinite Workplace Closure'

Renault Samsung Suspends Night Shifts at Busan Plant Until Negotiations Settle
Renault Samsung Union's Guerrilla Strikes Reduce Productivity to One-Fifth
"Extraordinary Measures to Save Company, Partners, and Customers"

[Asia Economy Reporter Suyeon Woo] Renault Samsung Motors responded to the labor union's guerrilla strike with an ultra-strong measure of 'indefinite workplace closure.' The Renault Samsung Busan plant declared a complete suspension of night operations starting from the 10th and will switch from the existing two-shift system (day and night) to a single day shift system.

According to the automotive industry on the 10th, Renault Samsung decided to partially close the Busan plant by halting operations from the night shift after 3:45 PM on the same day. The closure period has not been set. The company plans to suspend night shift work and operate the plant for 8 hours under a single day shift system until labor-management negotiations are settled.

A Renault Samsung official explained, "Despite disruptions in Nissan Rogue export shipments, domestic customer vehicle deliveries, and the imminent launch of a new model, the union has not stopped striking, threatening the very existence of the company," adding, "This is an extraordinary measure for the survival of Renault Samsung employees, customers, and partners."

The reason Renault Samsung took such a strong stance is that due to the union's 'guerrilla strikes,' production volume dropped to less than one-fifth of the usual level even when operating both day and night shifts at full capacity. Since the strike participation rate fell below 30% starting in December, the Renault Samsung union has been conducting guerrilla-style designated strikes by announcing strikes suddenly and dividing them by team and time.

The Nissan Rogue produced at Renault Samsung's Busan plant

This strike method exploits the characteristic of the automobile production process, where even if only a small number of workers in certain processes stop working, the entire production is disrupted. As a result, despite more than 70% of union members attending work normally at the Renault Samsung Busan plant, production has suffered serious damage.

Renault Samsung estimates losses from the strike (145 hours) during the '2019 Wage and Collective Agreement' negotiations alone to be around 120 billion KRW. Including the long-term strike lasting about a year during the 2018 wage negotiations, the total strike time approaches 500 hours, with cumulative sales losses estimated at 450 billion KRW.

Considering the backlog of work such as the Nissan Rogue consignment volume, which accounts for more than half of the Busan plant's export volume, the rapidly increasing sales of LPG models like the QM6, and domestic production of the new XM3, reaching a settlement in the wage and collective agreement negotiations is an urgent matter.

However, the union is breaking industry norms by continuing strikes during the negotiation process and not attending scheduled negotiation meetings despite the company's proposal of an additional one million KRW lump-sum payment, continuing its unreasonable actions. A union official said, "We are well aware of the union members' fatigue from the strike, but until the company makes a progressive decision, we have no choice but to continue strong measures."

The problem is that if the current 'strong versus strong' confrontation continues, both Renault Samsung labor and management will inevitably head toward mutual destruction. Without stable production, the Renault Samsung Busan plant will find it difficult to be assigned successor export models to the Nissan Rogue, facing the worst-case scenario of a production cliff. From the union's perspective, if the current single day shift system becomes fixed, a large-scale workforce restructuring will be unavoidable.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.