HMM Land and Sea Unions Prepare to Form 'Joint Emergency Countermeasures Committee'

Entering Joint Struggle if 2nd Central Labor Relations Commission Fails

[Asia Economy Reporter Dongwoo Lee] HMM's land labor union has secured the legal right to strike and plans to form an emergency countermeasure committee (tentative name) together with the maritime labor union. The HMM land labor union announced that if the second mediation meeting of the Central Labor Relations Commission scheduled for the afternoon of the 20th with the maritime labor union ends in failure, they will immediately form a struggle committee and respond jointly.

According to the shipping industry, the HMM maritime labor union will conduct a member agreement procedure on the company's wage and collective bargaining proposal at the second mediation meeting of the Central Labor Relations Commission at 2 p.m. that day. Jeon Jeong-geun, chairman of the HMM maritime labor union, stated, "If an agreement on the company's final wage increase proposal is not reached on that day, we will immediately cooperate with the land labor union to form an emergency countermeasure committee within the day and begin joint struggle."

Previously, the company proposed to the land labor union an 8% wage increase, a 300% encouragement bonus, and a 200% incentive payment after the year-end settlement, but the proposal was rejected with 95% voting against it. Both the land and maritime labor unions have proposed a 25% wage increase and a 1200% performance bonus, aiming to "normalize wages" that have been frozen for eight years.

Due to the significant gap between the positions of labor and management, the possibility of an HMM union strike is increasing. The land labor union received a final mediation termination decision at the third mediation meeting of the Central Labor Relations Commission the day before and plans to conduct a member vote soon to decide whether to carry out a strike. The maritime labor union also plans to complete the member vote over the coming weekend if the mediation meeting ends in failure.

If the HMM union goes on strike, it will be the first strike since the company's founding in 1976. Under current law, strikes are not allowed on vessels that are sailing or in foreign ports, so the union is expected to focus the strike on ships arriving at Busan Port first. A logistics crisis due to the strike is also inevitable. If maritime union workers engage in lawful protests such as refusing to disembark or depart, bottlenecks caused by port congestion may occur.

An HMM official said, "We will do our best to negotiate until the end to improve the actual working conditions of the company's employees."

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