Korea GM Union Again Postpones Vote on Tentative Labor Agreement... Rescheduled for This Month's 9th-10th

"The Company Changed Its Position on Imposing Income Tax Related to Vouchers"

Korea GM Bupyeong Plant (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] The Korean GM union has once again postponed the member vote on the tentative wage negotiation agreement for 2019. Previously, the vote scheduled for the 30th-31st of last month was postponed to the 6th-7th of this month, marking the second delay.

The Korean GM union announced on the 6th that the member vote on the tentative agreement would be held on the 9th and 10th of this month. The union claims that the reason for the postponement is the company's "changing stance" regarding the issuance of vouchers that provide discounts when purchasing new cars from Korean GM.

Kim Seong-gap, head of the Korean GM branch of the Metal Workers' Union, stated in a press release that "The company had said during practical discussions that income tax (about 6%) related to the vouchers would not be imposed on union members, but on the 3rd, they notified us that this tax is individual and cannot be borne by the company," adding, "We postponed the general assembly of union members based on the judgment that members' expressions of opinion should be respected once the tentative agreement is fully understood."

Addressing the company, he said, "They must know well that this is not a situation that can be resolved with just a single apology claiming it was a mistake during practical discussions," and warned, "The company must publicly apologize to all union members, and if such an apology is not made, we will retaliate several times over."

The Korean GM union reached a tentative agreement on the 25th of last month, about nine months after starting wage negotiations with the company last year, and planned to immediately hold a vote. The tentative agreement included the union conceding on the basic wage increase demand and the company agreeing to provide vouchers. However, before the vote, an expanded executive meeting was canceled due to opposition from some union delegates, leading to the vote being postponed to the 6th-7th of this month.

On the morning of the 6th, the union held a delegate sharing meeting to explain the changes related to the vouchers, and plans to hold the 65th expanded executive meeting on the 7th. The vote on the tentative agreement is scheduled to take place over two days, the 9th and 10th.

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