12 December, 2010
A sit-in strike by contract workers at the Hyundai Motor factory in Ulsan, South Gyeongsang, South Korea, which at times turned violent, ended on 9 December. The 25-day strike ended when three unions, including one representing the contract workers, met and agreed to halt the strike on condition that management would negotiate in good-faith to make the workers full-time Hyundai staff. The strike and blockade of production was over the auto manufacturer’s refusal to grant permanent work status, in accord with a July Korean Supreme Court decision. (See related story here.)
The workers, some 550 in total who are members of the Hyundai Motors Irregular Workers’ Union, began sit-in actions at Ulsan on 15 November and are demanding an end to discrimination in wages and job conditions. The militant strike action was started by some 30 workers after Hyundai sought to replace a terminated seat-assembly subcontracting company called Dongsung with another, and insisted that the contract workers sign individual contracts with the new company.
In the weeks prior, some 1,900 contract workers at Hyundai, buoyed by the 22 July Supreme Court decision stating they must be made permanent and direct workers of the car producer after two years employment, joined the Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU). With the change in subcontractors, Hyundai also attempted to coerce the workers to withdraw from the KMWU.
The strike had been met by the use of beatings and tear gas by local police brought in by the world’s fifth largest car-maker. At the outset on 15 November, Hyundai managers attacked the sit-down strikers with heavy metal fittings and iron frames. Scores of contract workers have been arrested, and the company has filed both criminal and civil lawsuits against the strikers, including a civil one against 419 strikers seeking 16.2 billion (US$14.1 million) for lost production. One contract worker attempted to set himself on fire during a plant gate rally on 20 November.
At times, three assembly lines had been blockaded by angry contract workers, costing Hyundai some 24,000 units of production. As of early last week, contract workers were occupying one line at Ulsan, the world’s largest integrated automobile manufacturing facility, thus cutting production of the company’s newly-unveiled Accent model, as well as Click and Verna subcompact models.
Union leaders at Ulsan had been seeking dialogue with Hyundai Motor management in order to resolve the ever-growing number of issues, but reportedly senior management would not meet until the strike actions cease.
The strike by contract workers did catch the attention of autoworkers throughout the world. On 6 December, the American United Auto Workers’ (UAW) Union held a manifestation attended by 150 people at the Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center in the US state of Michigan in support of the Korean autoworkers.