Hyundai Motor's Unionized Workers Vote To Strike

Unionized workers at Hyundai Motor Co. in South Korea have voted in favor of a strike, setting the stage for another walkout that may cut the carmaker's vehicle output amid dwindling sales, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Photo Insert: The labor union is demanding that Hyundai increase employee monthly basic salary by 165,200 won ($127), payout 30% of the company's net revenue as incentives, raise the retirement age, and reinstate sacked employees, among other things.

The labor union said 71.8 percent of the 40,958 members, who cast their ballots on Friday, July 1, turned out to be in support of a walkout.

The union can go on strike when the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) concludes there are irreconcilable differences between the carmaker and the union and decides to terminate mandatory mediation, which can usually last 10 days.

The labor union is demanding that South Korea's largest automaker increase employee monthly basic salary by 165,200 won ($127), payout 30% of the company's net revenue as incentives, raise the retirement age, and reinstate sacked employees, among other things.

The union's move came as Hyundai Motor's sales fell 7.6 percent to 1,877,193 units in the first six months of this year, from 2,031,185 units in the same period last year, due to a global chip shortage. If the labor union strikes, it will be the first time in four years.

For decades, labor unrest has plagued the country's largest automaker. Despite this, the automaker and the union have secured pay agreements without a strike in the last three years, despite a trade conflict with Japan in 2019, and the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2021.

Last year, the management and the labor reached an agreement on a 75,000 won increase in basic monthly pay, a bonus of 200 percent of a worker's monthly salary plus 3.5 million won, 2.3 million won in performance-based benefits, and five Hyundai shares per person.

The company, however, rejected the union's demand to extend the retirement age to 64 and reinstate fired workers. In 2020, the company and its union agreed on a wage freeze for the first time in 11 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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