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28 March, 2011
Labour strife broke out late last week at Kumho tyre plants Korea. Members of the Kumho Tyre Workers’ Union, affiliated to the Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU) and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), staged a one-day warning strike on 25 March at two of three Kumho plants in Korea – Gwungju and Gokseong.
Management immediately retaliated that day and on 26 March with a lockout. When some 3,400 workers at the two plants in southwestern Korea tried to return to their jobs, Kumho managers insisted they sign individual agreements pledging not to strike.
The KMWU branch unit issued a statement calling on Kumho to negotiate over a set of disputed issues, and said, “The company forced union workers to confirm that they would not take part in (further) strikes.” The Kumho Tyre Workers’ Union is strongly encouraging workers not to sign the statement and not to return to work while the lockout is in force.
Kumho’s Gwungju Tyre Plant, 25 March
By a 72% vote count, rubber workers on 10 March voted to launch the warning strike. Central among issues is management’s refusal to negotiate paid time-off inside the factories for KMWU branch leaders to handle grievances and perform other union business. The union also seeks labour-management dialogue in order to cut excessive noise pollution in the factories, and wants revisions to severance packages.
Kumho, a subsidiary of the Kumho Asiana Group, has shed a great number of jobs over the past two years due to a heavy debt burden and shifting of work to start-up plants in China. Earlier last week, Kumho was hit by a massive recall of tyres made in those Chinese plants because recycled content exceeded the allowable requirements.
Kumho is Korea’s second largest tyre manufacturer and the world’s tenth biggest. Workers at the company’s third tyre plant in Korea, in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi province, where the KMWU also represents staff, are not affected by the current labour strife.