Hyundai Motor, HHI workers to rally this week

By Jhoo Dong-chan

Workers at Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) will stage three concurrent strikes this week. They also plan to stage a joint rally Wednesday, the first of its kind in 23 years when the two largest trade unions struggled for better wages in 1993.

Unionized workers at Hyundai Motor plan to launch a partial strike today where daytime and nighttime workers will rally for two hours each.

The daytime workers will then stage a four-hour rally Wednesday while the nighttime workers will do the same the following day.

On Friday, the daytime workers are expected to demonstrate for six hours while the night shift will stage a full strike for the whole day.

Also, they won’t work overtime starting Tuesday, a union official said.

The union has demanded a 7.2 percent rise in the basic monthly wage and performance pay, totaling 30 percent of the automaker's 2015 net profit, while the company is pushing to freeze wages, revamp the wage structure and expand the so-called "peak wage system."

Last week, workers at Hyundai Motor Union voted to strike, with 77 percent of 48,806 union members approving of the action.

Likewise, unionized workers at HHI are expected to stage rallies on the same days, except Thursday.

Workers at HHI headquarters will stage a rally for three hours starting 2 p.m. today, while all workers will strike for four hours Wednesday and seven hours Friday.

They also voted last week on whether to go on strike, with 60 percent of 15,326 unionized workers approving the decision.

Both unions’ rallies today will be held in the same place at the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) Ulsan Chapter headquarters, seeking mutual support.

The authorities plan to take severe measures against any unlawful action.

Especially, they will pay extra attention to the two unions’ joint strike, Thursday, a police official said.

Business circles and Ulsan residents voiced deep concerns about the series of strikes.

“The companies are treated like the workers’ enemies,” said an Ulsan city official.

“The real enemies are foreign companies, against which the companies and workers should cooperate to fight back in the global market.”

It would be a severe blow to HHI's efforts for normalization if the unionized workers decide to join Hyundai Motor workers in a walkout. Creditors of the embattled shipbuilder demanded the union's cooperation as one of the baseline conditions for the shipbuilder's restructuring plan.

HHI announced a self-rescue plan that includes asset sales and a cut in the workforce to save 3.5 trillion won. Under the shipbuilder's self-rescue plan, temporarily approved by its creditors and led by KEB-Hana Bank, it will sell stock investments and noncore assets and cut its workforce, which will reduce its debt-to-equity ratio to below 100 percent by 2018.