Hyundai Motor's union leaders and company executives celebrate the signing of a wage accord.[Yonhap News Photo]
South Korea's leading carmaker Hyundai Motor normalized operations Monday with the signing of a labor-management wage accord and a joint apology over a series of walkouts that cost 2.7 billion US dollars for three months.
The accord came after Hyundai's unionized workers endorsed a provisional wage agreement in a vote last Friday. Union leaders agreed on a base monthly pay increase of 72,000 won (64 US dollars), 350 percent of their base monthly payment plus a cash payment of 3.3 million won, and other incentives.
"We feel deeply responsible for causing trouble to our subcontractors and inconvenience to clients with prolonged wage negotiations this year," union leaders and company officials said in a joint statement marking the conclusion of their wage negotiations.
Hyundai workers have staged partial walkouts on and off from July 19, causing some 3.1 trillion won ($2.7 billion) in lost production.
Hyundai's union is notorious for its militant activity. For decades, strikes have been an annual event, prompting the company to increase production overseas. Last year the company posted an operating profit of some 6.37 trillion won, down 15.8 percent from a year ago.
Strikes this year came as Hyundai Motor was struggling with slow sales at home and abroad. Hyundai's global sales fell two percent on-year to 387,302 units in September due largely to a cut in domestic output caused by a labor strife.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
