[Yonhap News Photo ]
Unionized workers at South Korea's leading carmaker Hyundai Motor downed tools Friday for a walkout that crippled the production of 3,500 vehicles in a dispute over the introduction of a new peak wage system.
Hyundai Motor's union halted production for eight hours Friday and plans to strike again on Monday for another eight hours. The walkout on Friday cost about 80 billion won (72 million US dollars).
Hyundai Motor workers have staged a series of partial strikes this month as union leaders and company officials failed to narrow differences especially over the peak wage system which freezes the wages of workers aged 59 years old and lowers that of 60-year-old workers by 10 percent.
The company proposed cutting the wages of employees aged 59 and 60 years old by 10 percent. The union wants the company to raise the retirement age, along with an average 7.2 percent wage hike and bigger financial benefits.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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