Hyundai Worker In Flames

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

The website for midwives the voice of union activists Labornotes reports that a South Korean Hyundai Motor worker set himself afire Sunday after management refused his request to slow down the line. The 44-year-old unionist, Shin Sung-hun, is in critical condition. According to the site, Shin poured paint thinner over and set fire to himself .

As a result, union members at the plant refused to work overtime, which crippled production of sport utility vehicles at Hyundai and Kia. Management agreed to make a public apology and to reprimand some supervisors.

That done, Hyundai said it would seek damages caused by the union’s action.

Rough crowd.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Shaker Shaker on Jan 21, 2012

    Pretty callous comments here. Of course, our possessions are more important than the people who make them. Maybe we should re-think our priorities...

  • John John on Jan 21, 2012

    I worked in a burn unit for a while. Most people don't know that in just about every major burn unit and psych hospital in North America there is always someone who tried to kill themselves by setting themselves on fire, but lived. The result is massive third degree burns. Takes months and multiple operations to fix them because so little alive skin is left for grafting. The process is incredibly painful. The man in the picture is guaranteed to die. I left the burn unit because I couldn't take dealing with the burned kids. Couldn't cope with it emotionally.

    • Rpn453 Rpn453 on Jan 21, 2012

      What a waste of medical resources. If someone wants to die, let them die.

  • Les Les on Jan 22, 2012

    Wasn't an unusually fast assembly-line for the number of workers assigned to it one of the (admittedly many) things that doomed the Chevrolet Vega?

  • Mikey Mikey on Jan 22, 2012

    @ Les....In order for an assembly line to run faster "jobs per hour" =JPH, you need more space, and more people. It impossible to take a line that was designed to run 50 JPH and make it run at 80 JPH. If you need 20 feet to complete your job assingment,and you only have 18 ft,it don't work. In the seventies and eighties GM tried to make it work,with limited sucess. I worked Oshawa#1 B plant in the eighties. We had that plant running 60+JPH. The plant was built in the fifties and designed for 45 to 50 JPH. We tripped over each other,hoses,and other tools got tangled. Complex emmision systems of that era,added to the confusion. The washrooms were backed up, in more than one way. In the fifties there were no women in the plant. GM had to convert mens rooms over to women rooms. Tempers were short,and fist fights were not uncommon. However through it all myself and fellow CAW/UAW workers built some pretty fine cars. Even up here in rust country, you still see some old B Chevy's. Finally somebody higher up got smart. They gutted the place in 85,then again in 88. Today they got one of the most modern,state of the art,flexible lines in the world. As one who survives on a GM Canada pension,hopefully its not too little,too late. Mikey A proud, former UAW/CAW worker

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