Wage deal without strikes

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2019/08/202_274776.html

Wage deal without strikes

It is significant that the union at the nation's largest automaker agreed to a deal while refraining from staging a walkout that had almost become an annual ritual, in the face of difficult economic conditions.

 

Noteworthy in the tentative deal is a labor-management accord to strive jointly to improve productivity and enhance quality competitiveness. These moves are aimed at getting over downside risks at home and abroad, such as declining demand for cars amid a global business slump and growing uncertainties over the Fourth Industrial Revolution. As is well known, the average time to make a car at Hyundai Motor is longer than those of Toyota and GM. On the other hand, the average wage of the five Korean automakers is higher than those of Toyota and Volkswagen.

 

The global car industry has entered into massive restructuring, and domestic automakers have also begun a similar process. Unless Korean carmakers upgrade their productivity and quality to the world's top level, they cannot survive these times when the car industry's paradigm itself is changing. That also explains why the recent employer-employee agreement at Hyundai Motor should bear fruit.

The trouble-free agreement can help Hyundai Motor avoid an estimated loss of up to 600 billion won (495 million) that may have arisen from a labor dispute. The valuable experience should serve as an opportunity to creating a "win-win" labor-management culture. We hope the dispute-free deal will spread beyond Hyundai to the unions at other automakers, including Kia Motors and GM Korea, which are now taking steps toward collective action.

 

https://autopublishers.com/hyundai-problems-strikes-and-recalls