The labor union at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (329180) will stage a three-day partial strike involving all members starting on the 21st. The walkout, the second in as many months, comes as prime contractor and subcontractor unions at Hanwha Ocean (042660) occupy a crane in an illegal high-altitude protest, putting South Korea's shipbuilding industry on alert.
According to shipbuilding industry sources on the 18th, the HD Hyundai Heavy Industries union — the Hyundai Heavy Industries branch of the Korean Metal Workers' Union — decided that strike committee members and specialist officers from each department will walk out for four hours in the afternoon on the 19th and 20th, and that all union members will stage a seven-hour partial strike each day from the 21st through the 23rd. The all-member walkout will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., excluding the lunch break.
Labor and management reached their first tentative agreement on Sept. 30, following talks that began with an initial meeting on June 2. The deal included a 120,000 won increase in base pay, including 50,000 won in seniority-based raises, and a lump-sum payment of 11 million won plus 200% of monthly wages in incentives and other one-off bonuses. But it was rejected in a membership vote on the 2nd, with 52.14% of the 7,541 voters opposing it. Negotiations resumed on the 13th, but the union turned again to partial strikes after management declined to put forward an improved offer.
The dispute over how to divide profits has grown increasingly sharp at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, which has posted record earnings this year. Amid a changed labor environment following the enactment of the so-called yellow envelope law, this year's wage and collective bargaining talks did not begin until June 2, about two weeks later than last year's start on May 20. Last year's negotiations also dragged on, with an agreement signed only on Sept. 22 — 125 days after talks began — after 16 strikes and 24 bargaining sessions. This year has already passed 139 days without the two sides finding common ground.
Friction over aligning different wage and benefit systems following the absorption of HD Hyundai Mipo in December last year is another factor prolonging the standoff. Union members who came from the former HD Hyundai Mipo are protesting that their existing working conditions have been rolled back in the merger process. Kim Tae-am, head of the Mipo committee, has been on an open-ended hunger strike since the 8th in protest.
Labor and management at Hanwha Ocean have also struggled to narrow their differences. The union held a 28th round of talks with management on the 16th but failed to reach a deal. Only last year, Hanwha Ocean was the fastest among South Korea's three largest shipbuilders to reach a substantive agreement, with members approving a bargaining deal in a vote on July 24. This year, however, the dispute has dragged on as the prime contractor's union joined a high-altitude protest started by the subcontractors' union, which entered its first round of bargaining after the yellow envelope law took effect. The prime and subcontractor unions at Hanwha Ocean have taken a hard line, saying they will continue the protest until a settlement is reached, while management counters that anything threatening safety and production cannot be subject to compromise.
Meanwhile, POSCO — where a strike-free record stretching 58 years since its founding in 1968 has been broken — held a main bargaining session on the 14th that ended without agreement, leaving both sides braced for a protracted fight.