On Aug. 20, morning-shift workers leave the Myeongchon main gate of Hyundai Motor’s Ulsan plant in Buk-gu, Ulsan, early due to a four-hour partial strike. The Hyundai Motor union staged a four-hour partial strike each day from the 19th through this day, and will launch a full eight-hour strike on the 21st for the first time in 10 years. Yonhap News
ULSAN — The Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) labor union will launch an eight-hour full strike on the 21st, its first company-wide walkout since collective bargaining in 2016. Alongside the strike, union officials plan to protest in front of Hyundai Motor Group headquarters in the Yangjae area of Seoul’s Seocho District to press management.
The union also held its 14th walkout on the 20th, with the morning and afternoon shifts each halting operations for four hours. The move effectively stopped the production line for eight hours, pushing cumulative strike time to 52 hours and lost production time on the line beyond 100 hours.
The escalation follows the collapse of the 16th round of main bargaining on the 18th, which resumed after 41 days but ended without results. In the talks, management offered no additional proposals on base pay or performance bonuses and balked at the union’s demand for a 50% increase in regular bonuses.
The two sides also remained far apart on the union’s separate demands, the core sticking points. On extending the retirement age, management said it would open supplementary talks immediately once legislation is completed, to discuss the timing and a wage peak system. On reinstating dismissed workers to their original positions, management proposed deciding on reinstatement after confirming the individuals’ intentions by year-end and reviewing steps such as withdrawing provisional seizures tied to damage claims. The union rejected the offer as unacceptable.
In a press release on the 20th, the union renewed its calls for extending the retirement age and for fair distribution. “Internal reserves grew ninefold, from 11.4 trillion won in 2007 to 101.3 trillion won as of 2025, yet fixed pay accounts for only 54.8% of members’ wages,” the union said. “A bonus increase is not an excessive demand.”
“The additional cost of extending the retirement age by two years is at most about 180 billion won a year, and there is no reason a company earning 13 trillion won in annual net profit cannot bear it,” the union said. “The retirement age should be extended through collective bargaining, regardless of any change in the law.”
The union is currently demanding a 149,600-won increase in base pay, a performance bonus equal to 30% of last year’s net profit, an 800% increase in regular bonuses, an extension of the retirement age and reinstatement of dismissed workers. Management, in the 15th round of talks on the 8th of last month, offered an 89,000-won increase in base pay, a bonus of 350% plus 10 million won, and 15 shares of treasury stock.
Following the full strike on the 21st, the union plans further four-hour strikes on the 24th and the 25th. It will then convene its central strike committee on the 25th to discuss the schedule for future action. Working-level consultations are continuing, however, and the union said it would suspend the strike on any day that main bargaining resumes.
Concern is meanwhile growing in the local community over a prolonged strike. Lee Dong-kwon, head of Ulsan’s Buk-gu District, and Lee Jin-bok, chair of the Buk-gu District Council, held a joint news conference at the district office that day to urge a swift settlement.
“The longer the talks drag on, the more they burden suppliers and the local economy and add uncertainty,” the district chief said. “I ask that labor and management understand each other’s positions and pool their wisdom to reach an agreement quickly.”
Lee Dong-kwon, head of Ulsan’s Buk-gu district (front row, center), along with district council members and district officials, hold a press conference at the Buk-gu district press center on the morning of the 20th, urging Hyundai Motor’s labor and management to swiftly conclude wage negotiations. Photo courtesy of Ulsan Buk-gu