Hyundai Motor’s unionized workers in South Korea voted on Tuesday to strike over stalled wage talks, adding to the woes of the automaker that is bracing for potential new U. S. tariffs amid falling profits.
SEOUL (Reuters) — Hyundai Motor’s ( 005380. KS) unionized workers in South Korea voted on Tuesday to strike over stalled wage talks, adding to the woes of the automaker that is bracing for potential new U. S. tariffs amid falling profits.
Its shares slid to eight-year lows after the union, which has voted to strike every year for the past six years, said on Monday that nearly three-fourths of its 44,782 voters voted in favor of the strike action.
“We have not been able to narrow differences in key issues, making it difficult to reach a preliminary (wage) deal easily,” the union said in a statement.
Union negotiators later on Tuesday decided to hold off on starting the strike until July 10, when they will discuss a strike plan again, a union spokesman said.
The union walked out of the wage negotiations in late June, after Hyundai Motor proposed wage increases and bonuses which the union said fell short of expectations.
This year, the union is demanding a 5.3 percent increase in basic monthly wage, lower than the 7 percent it asked for last year and compared to South Korea’s annual inflation rate of 1.9 percent for 2017. It also wants performance pay totaling 30 percent of the automaker’s 2017 net profit.
The demands come at a time when South Korea’s automobile industry is experiencing rough weather. The country’s vehicle production fell 3 percent 41.15 million in 2017, its lowest level since the 2009 global economic downturn.
The union at General Motors’ ( GM.
