GM Daewoo--Autoworkers Resolve Strike

GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Company reached a tentative agreement with its trade union. This ended nine days of walkouts.

The strike cost South Korea’s No. 3 automaker about 3,500 vehicles in lost output.

GM Daewoo was formed in 2002 after the world's largest automaker General Motor Corp. purchased select assets of bankrupt Daewoo Motor Co.

Hyundai and Kia Motor, the nation's one and two ranked largest automakers, already successfully ended their contract talks with their workers earlier in July. (See July 1 blog ).

Ssangyong Motor Co, Korea’s fourth largest automaker, remains as the only domestic car company at odds with their union. Ssangyong workers recently struck in protest to the over its pending acquisition by the Shangha Automotive Company.
(See yesterday’s blog).

Each year workers that form unions at Hyundai, Kia, GM Daewoo, and Ssangyong go on strike during summer. Lat year Hyundai workers were on strike for six weeks, which impacted the supply of cars to key foreign markets including the U.S. This year the Hyundai strike was resolved in four days.

Autoworkers are seen as the most militant of labor groups in the South Korea. Interestingly, Korea’s remaining carmaker Renault Samsung Motor Co. is not unionized.