POSCO Labor and Management Reach Tentative Wage Deal After 140 Days; Base Pay Up 2.6%

[Financial News] After labor strife that included two partial strikes, POSCO's labor and management have reached a tentative agreement on the 2026 wage negotiations. The agreement comes 140 days after their initial meeting in June and includes a 2.6% increase in base pay, along with incentive payments and gift certificates totaling 6 million won. Whether the deal is finalized will be decided in a union-member vote scheduled for next week.
POSCO said it held formal negotiations with the labor union at its headquarters in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, on the 30th and reached a tentative wage agreement.
The tentative agreement includes a 2.6% increase in base pay, a 3.5 million won goal-achievement bonus, 2 million won in settlement celebration and labor-management harmony incentives, and 500,000 won in local gift certificates. It also provides for increased holiday bonuses and improved medical expense support.
This year's wage negotiations faced difficulties because of differences between labor and management over the base-pay increase rate and the size of incentive payments, among other issues. The union staged two partial strikes in September, and negotiations continued to be suspended and resumed afterward.
Labor and management agreed that, given the business environment—including slowing steel demand at home and abroad and the spread of protectionism—they needed to conclude the wage negotiations and work to stabilize conditions at the worksite.
The union plans to hold a vote among its members on the tentative agreement sometime next week. If the agreement wins majority support in the vote, this year's wage negotiations will be finalized.

[email protected] Kim Mi-hee Reporter