Hyundai Heavy Workers Extend Walkout For Another Week

Unionized workers at Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., South Korea's top shipbuilder, have decided to extend their ongoing walkout for another week to up the ante in their wage negotiations with the management as the company urged them to return to work, the labor union said.

The unionized workers were to end the strike on the day, which started Tuesday, occupying a shipbuilding crane in Ulsan, 414 kilometers southeast of Seoul, after the wage deal fell through, Nam Kwang-sik reported for Yonhap News Agency.

In response to the walkout, the management sought a court order to ban the unionists from occupying the crane and fine 26 leading union members 50 million won ($43,656) each if they do not call off the sit-in strike and remove tents and banners for the strike set up around the crane.

“The extension of the full strike aims to wind up the long-pending wage deal as soon as possible by pressing the management to have sincere negotiations with the union," Kim Hyeong-gyun, director of policy planning at the union, told Yonhap News Agency.

The union and management held nine rounds of wage negotiations from June 23 till Monday, one day before the unionists went on a full strike, but the management did not suggest any specific proposals to end the wage dispute during the negotiations, Kim said.

Han Young-seuk, chief executive of the shipbuilder, appealed for the unionists who have been joining in the strike to get back to work, promising the company will share any profits with the employees.

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