By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
Striking workers at troubled Ssangyong Motor turned down the company's final proposal Friday to end a month-long strike that has threatened its survival.
About 1,200 workers at Ssangyong, currently under bankruptcy protection, have occupied the company's only assembly plant in the port city of Pyeongtaek, about 70 kilometers south of Seoul, since May 21 to protest a massive job-cut plan.
At its plant, Ssangyong's two court-appointed representatives disclosed the ultimatum, which included a plan for a total of 976 workers to be laid off.
The legal managers also added the company would launch, beginning in July, a ``restrictive recall policy," to rehire laid-off employees. In case the company needs to increase its workforce within five years through its normalization program, some of the workers will be given priority to resume their job there, they said.
``With the illegal strike going on for 36 days and the production halt dragging on, the company is facing a critical situation," said Lee Yoo-il, one of the court-appointed managers.
The protest, which has continued since last month, has led the company to suspend output of nearly 8,000 vehicles, causing the maker to suffer a loss of 172.4 billion won ($134.2 million), according to the company.
Ssangyong Motor announced in April a revival plan that required the shedding of 2,646 workers, or 36 percent of its overall payrolls. So far, 1,670 of those designated employees have applied for an early retirement program.
Its labor union, in response, stood firmly on its bottom line of coming up with solutions other than huge job cuts through its direct negotiations with the government.
``We simply can't accept the proposal. It's just a request for all designated workers to leave the company in the end, although it is well-sugarcoated," union spokesman Lee Chang-kun said.
Ssangyong's union has been asking for direct negotiation with the government _ bypassing the company _ to seek an immediate bailout to revive the moribund company since China's Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, Ssangyong's former owner, left its Korean arm under court receivership in January amid worsening finances.
Lee accused Ssangyong's management of ``toying with the union," as it was well aware that the union would not accept the plan even before its disclosure. The hidden intention of the action is to get the government involved in the dispute in favor of management, he added.
Representatives of the company denied Thursday the possibility of settling down the current trouble by union-government talks, citing the announcement from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy earlier this week that the government can't respond to the union's request because it is not a concerned party.
The union also said the authenticity of the company over the issue remains seriously questionable. ``While pretending to be committed to its peaceful revival, it keeps using strikebreaker actions behind our back to make us merely a bunch of violators," Lee said.