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17 April, 2002A majority of the union's members vote in favour of a provisional agreement between General Motors and Daewoo Motor Company.
REPUBLIC OF KOREA: Members of the Daewoo Motor Workers' Union have approved a provisional agreement between Daewoo Motor Company and General Motors. GM, whose official takeover of the Korean carmaker appears imminent, proposed many of the conditions for the deal.
With 8,234 Daewoo union members participating in a ballot at the union's April 16 general meeting, 69.4 per cent voted in favour of ratifying the provisional agreement. According to union sources, the vote was based primarily on the workers' desire for the prolonged crisis situation at Daewoo - the company's bankruptcy and the GM takeover bid - to come to an end.
As for job security, Daewoo agrees to maintain employment not only at plants taken over by General Motors, but also those which remain with Daewoo. The new Daewoo collective bargaining agreement will be continued.
A priority task for the union and Daewoo is to draw up a long-term plan for the company's Pupyong auto plant in Inchon, west of Seoul. This plant, which formerly had a workforce of 18,000 but is now down to 7,000, will not be included in the GM takeover. A variety of conditions have been proposed and, if met, the Pupyong plant may be integrated into the new GM-Daewoo company. It was agreed that:
- efforts to develop a new car at Pupyong should be made, and the model currently being produced will be continued;
- no measures will be taken which could cause job insecurity, such as transferring production lines from Pupyong;
- production of the P-100 and SUV models will be considered;
- Pupyong will have an independent management system;
- productivity and sales of cars produced at the Pupyong plant had to increase.