Second Strike by Hyosung Heavy Industries Office Workers... Impact on Design, Quality and Other Work in Focus

[Financial News] Attention is focused on the impact on key duties such as design, testing and quality as the Hyosung Heavy Industries Office and Technical Workers’ Union begins its second all-out strike on the 13th. Although skilled production workers are excluded from the strike, around 1,300 office and technical workers who belong to the union are expected to participate through the 30th. The company says it intends to maintain normal business operations while continuing negotiations with the union.
According to industry sources on the 13th, the Hyosung Heavy Industries Office and Technical Workers’ Union will stage an 18-day all-out strike from that day through the 30th. Around 1,300 of its roughly 1,480 members are expected to participate. Key roles affected include design, manufacturing, testing and quality at the company’s Changwon plant in South Gyeongsang Province, as well as sales at its Seoul headquarters.
Skilled production workers are not included in the strike. The company says the strike will not result in a shutdown of the entire Changwon plant and that it plans to continue normal production and customer support.
The core issues in the labor dispute are the presentation of a wage proposal and time off for union activities. Since its formation last June, the union has been engaged in wage and collective bargaining, demanding a 10% increase in base pay, criteria for performance bonus payments and a narrower benefits gap between job groups. It also staged its first three-day all-out strike from the 4th to the 6th.
The union had initially planned to strike for two weeks starting on the 17th, but brought the start date forward by four days after the main negotiations scheduled for the previous day fell through. The union claims the company unilaterally notified it of a postponement one hour before talks were due to begin.
The company, by contrast, said it had not refused to negotiate, but had proposed rescheduling the main talks to the 19th to allow for substantive discussions. The company says the union is demanding a specific wage proposal and the restoration of time-off arrangements to their previous state as preconditions for resuming negotiations.
The company also said that, since conditions for negotiations had changed following the National Labor Relations Commission’s decision on the 28th of last month regarding the review of bargaining-unit separation, it was necessary to reorganize the parties to the talks, their scope and the way they are conducted.
Hyosung Heavy Industries said it was concerned that repeated strikes could undermine its business competitiveness and customer confidence, while also stating that it respects the union’s right to engage in lawful industrial action. With the two sides continuing to disagree, whether the main talks proposed by the company for the 19th take place and the actual work disruptions caused by the strike are expected to be key issues going forward.

[email protected] Kim Mi-hee Reporter