Hyundai Heavy Industries Labor and Management Prevent Unprecedented Strike of Three Shipbuilding Companies... Weakening Momentum of Joint Strike (Comprehensive)

Prevented First Joint Strike of Joseon’s Three Companies
Hyundai Steel and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Unions Also Choose Negotiation Over Protest

On the 2nd, the 9th day of the Cargo Solidarity general strike, containers are piled up at Busan Port's Sinsundae Pier. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] Hyundai Heavy Industries' labor and management reached a tentative agreement on wages and collective bargaining on the 6th, preventing the unprecedented joint strike by the three major shipbuilding companies. Unions of Hyundai Steel and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering also stepped back from their winter struggles, leading to assessments that the momentum for a general strike has weakened.

Hyundai Heavy Industries' labor and management conducted their 36th round of negotiations at the Ulsan headquarters starting the day before and finally produced a tentative agreement. The agreement includes an 80,000 KRW increase in base pay (including a 23,000 KRW step increase), a 20,000 KRW increase in regional and welfare allowances, performance bonuses, a 3.5 million KRW encouragement bonus, and 300,000 KRW in gift certificates. Additionally, they agreed to increase the number of fixed-term hires targeting retired production technology workers.

The union plans to hold a vote among all members on the 8th to approve or reject this tentative agreement. The joint strike by the three shipbuilding companies originally scheduled for that afternoon was postponed. The unions of the three shipbuilders had planned a four-hour joint partial strike that afternoon, rotating strikes from the 7th to the 9th, and a full joint strike on the 13th. This is the first time since the establishment of the Hyundai Heavy Industries union in 1987 that the three unions have resolved to strike jointly. With Hyundai Heavy Industries (about 7,700 members) concluding its negotiations this year, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (about 1,900 members) and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries (about 2,100 members) are expected to accelerate their negotiations. The management of Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries have yet to present their negotiation proposals.

A Hyundai Heavy Industries official said, "Labor and management communicated with the determination to conclude this negotiation without carrying it over to the next year, resulting in the successful preparation of a tentative agreement," adding, "We hope this will prepare us for a full-fledged leap forward next year." Following Hyundai Heavy Industries, labor and management at Hyundai Steel and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering also opened the door to dialogue instead of confrontation ahead of the general strike called by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).

The Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering union, which has been conducting partial strikes since last month, decided to enter full negotiations with management on this day. Instead of participating in the general strike announced by the KCTU, only key executives belonging to the standing executive committee will participate, focusing their efforts on ongoing wage and collective bargaining negotiations. The Hyundai Steel union also decided to continue negotiations with management instead of joining the general strike on the 6th. While conducting collective bargaining, the Hyundai Steel union halted guerrilla strikes that had been ongoing since September at the end of last month and has been negotiating with management for two weeks.

Meanwhile, the KCTU held a nationwide simultaneous general strike and all-out struggle rally titled "Victory in the Cargo Truck General Strike Struggle, Nationwide Simultaneous KCTU General Strike and All-Out Struggle Rally to Crush the Yoon Seok-yeol Government's Labor Oppression" at 15 locations across Seoul, Gyeonggi, and other regions in the afternoon. The KCTU explained that it made this decision at an emergency central executive committee meeting on the 30th of last month to support the Cargo Solidarity's strike. The Cargo Solidarity has been continuing a general strike since the 24th of last month, demanding the expansion of applicable vehicle types and items under the safe freight rate system.

The KCTU's struggle formation is faltering amid a standoff with the government. The Pohang branch of POSCO, one of the two major unions at POSCO, decided to withdraw from the KCTU Metal Workers' Union through a member vote held from the 28th to the 30th of last month. Currently, only the POSCO Gwangyang branch union remains in the Metal Workers' Union. The union with collective bargaining rights as the representative union of POSCO is affiliated with the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU).

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