Hyundai Motor President "Regretful of Strike Steps"...Union "No Sacrifice, Company's Bonus System Unreasonable"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] Following the breakdown of this year's wage and collective bargaining agreement negotiations, Hyundai Motor Company's labor and management have entered a power struggle to gain public opinion ahead of a potential strike. While the management expressed regret over the strike process, the Hyundai Motor Branch of the Metal Workers' Union countered, stating, "No more sacrifices can be made."

The office workers' union, which did not participate in this round of wage and collective bargaining (wage and collective agreement) negotiations, also expressed regret over the strike announcement, although it criticized the company's proposed performance bonuses as unreasonable.

On the 1st, Hyundai Motor President Ha Eon-tae issued a statement regarding the union's declaration of negotiation breakdown, saying, "Despite the company recently offering top-level wages and performance bonuses, it is regrettable that the union is repeating the strike process."

He explained the background, saying, "Considering last year's 33.6% decrease in operating profit and production disruptions of 70,000 units in the first half of this year due to the semiconductor shortage, there were limits, but the company made a progressive offer."

He added, "We are well aware that there are various evaluations of this offer at the field level and that many compare it with major electronics and IT companies. Please make a sober judgment on whether it is appropriate to compare with companies whose workforce and cost structures are fundamentally different from manufacturing."

The union also criticized the management in a press release on the same day. The union stated, "While other large corporations and public enterprises raised wages and paid generous performance bonuses last year, Hyundai Motor union members froze wages without dispute to share social difficulties. No more sacrifices can be made."

They emphasized, "With the belief that there are no union members without customers, we have strived to improve quality and productivity, and as a result of our hard production efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic, we have achieved better operating results than many global competitors, driving the company's development."

The union further argued, "If the company distorts distributive justice and is obsessed only with profit pursuit, we have no choice but to confront it through the constitutionally guaranteed three labor rights." However, both labor and management emphasized that they are prepared to reach an agreement before the summer vacation and agree on the need for swift negotiations, leaving the possibility of resuming talks open.

The office and research staff union, established this year, also criticized the company's proposed performance bonus level as "unreasonable compared to the efforts of employees." Lee Geon-woo, chairman of the Hyundai Motor Group Talent Respect Office and Research Staff Union, told union members that day, "If our union's opinion that performance bonuses should be fairly distributed based on reasonable calculation criteria had been accepted, employee anger would not have flared up to this extent."

However, the office workers' union expressed regret over the field workers' union's strike announcement, stating, "We know from experience that the burden of enormous social costs ultimately comes back to all of us."

Chairman Lee also expressed regret, saying, "Since the union's launch, we have tried to convey the desires of office and research staff to Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun and CEOs of each affiliate, but we only received a response described as 'non-response instructions from the Planning and Coordination Office regarding the office and research staff union.'"

Earlier, the union rejected the company's proposal at the 13th negotiation held on the 30th of last month and declared the breakdown of talks. They announced plans to hold a strike vote on the 7th of this month. The union has demanded a wage increase of 99,000 KRW (excluding regular and seniority increments), a 30% performance bonus, extension of retirement age (up to 64 years old), and maintenance of domestic factory jobs.

The company initially proposed a basic salary increase of 50,000 KRW (including seniority increments), a 100% performance bonus plus 3 million KRW, a 2 million KRW quality improvement incentive, and welfare points worth 100,000 KRW.

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