Hyundai Heavy Industries Union Announces First Strike of the Year on 19th Amidst Difficult Wage and Collective Bargaining Negotiations

Photo by Hyundai Heavy Industries Shipyard

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] The Hyundai Heavy Industries labor union has announced its first strike of the year due to difficulties in wage and collective bargaining negotiations.

The Hyundai Heavy Industries union announced on the 15th that it will begin a partial strike on the 19th. The union plans to strike for four hours from 1 PM on that day, involving all union members.

The union stated, "Since the tentative agreement for the 2019 and 2020 wage and collective bargaining was rejected by union members in a vote on the 5th of last month, we have requested the management to present additional proposals, but since they have not offered any, we are going on strike."

The first tentative agreement included a wage increase of 46,000 won for 2019, a freeze on the base salary for 2020, and the payment of performance bonuses and encouragement money. However, this agreement was rejected with 58% voting against it in the union member referendum.

After the first rejection, the union demanded special payments, but the management stated they have no capacity to do so. The union plans to continue dialogue with management separately from the strike.

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