Union to launch strike at Hyundai Motor in South Korea

Hyundai Motor's Union to Launch Full-Day Strike

ULSAN, South Korea, June 28 (Yonhap) -- Unionized workers at Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea's largest carmaker, said on Monday that they are preparing to launch a full-day strike this week to demand increased wages and improved working conditions. The strike, to start on Tuesday, will also call for increased bonuses and better deals for non-regular workers, it said.

Insights...
The ability for workers to strike in Korea was suppressed during the Park regime of the 1960s and 1970s. With the rise of democracy in South Korea, worker rights, long curbed, now require manufacturers to consider worker demands.

For example, unionized workers at Hyundai Motor Co. crippled operations in 2003 at the nation's largest car maker with a month long strike.

The workers stopped striking after management agreed to wage hikes and a shorter workweek.

The company saw a $1 billion production loss with the partial strike that began on June 25, 2003 and limited production at the company's factories for six to eight hours a day.