By Jane Han
Staff Reporter

Almost every year for more than a decade, Hyundai Motor workers downed their tools, walked off the job and joined the picket lines as part of their high-profile annual wage talks. But not this year.

The carmaker and its militant labor union tentatively agreed to a pay freeze late Tuesday night after a months-long negotiation in the industrial port city of Ulsan, 260 miles southeast of Seoul, where the company's biggest local plant is located.

The deal is tentative and is subject to a vote by the union members on Wednesday, according to Hyundai Motor officials. But if the 55,000-strong union votes in favor of the agreement, it would mark the first strike-free year in 15 years at a company where labor unrest has been an annual event.

A deal to freeze pay also marks the first of its kind since the biggest local union was launched in 1987, except in 1998, when the Asian financial crisis resulted in deep cuts in its workforce.

The rare agreement by one of the country's most aggressive labor unions came after last year's global financial crisis impacted the company's sales. It was reached under the union's new moderate leader, Lee Kyung-hun, who has softened the company's long-running rigid, politically-charged labor activities.

Averting the yearly strike helped Hyundai Motor prevent losses that would have roughly come out to more than 560 billion won, based on the total amount of losses that were generated from the union's strike since its founding.

The world's fifth-largest carmaker, which currently takes up about 80 percent of the local market share, has seen losses totaling 11.7 trillion won since 1987, according to company data.

``Labor and management successfully came to a consensus under a broad understanding that everyone at the company should cooperate in order to overcome the downturn in the global auto industry,'' said a Hyundai Motor official.

He said the labor-management team is going to channel its energy toward ramping up Hyundai's quality, competitiveness and services.

Chang Kyu-ho, a union spokesman, said, ``We managed to reach an agreement amid intense social and political pressure, so the union expects a wise decision from our members.''

The company's unionized workers will be mulling over a deal, which includes a one-off payment of 2 million won and a bonus for 2009 of 300 percent of the monthly salary for each employee.

Earlier this month, Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors set its annual domestic sales target at 114,000 vehicles, up 3 percent from this year's total.

jhan@koreatimes.co.kr