Hyundai Strike Ends While Car Shortage Starts

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Hyundais will be in short supply this coming month. Workers in Korea refused to make them and went on strike in July and August. Hyundai and the unions reached a tentative wage deal today, “ending the second-costliest strike in the firm’s 45-year history,” as Reuters reports.

Yesterday, a company executive told Reuters that Hyundai could miss its overseas sales target for September because fewer vehicles were shipped in August. Hyundai’s U.S. vehicle exports from South Korea dropped by a quarter in July from June.

The wage deal includes a 5.4 percent rise in basic salaries, a bonus equivalent to five months’ salary plus a 9.6 million Korean won ($8,500) payment for each worker. Most importantly, it was agreed to scrap the overnight shift at South Korean factories from March 2013. Hyundai will shorten working hours and introduce two shifts of eight hours and nine hours apiece instead of the current two

An end to the overnight shift also was at the center of union demands a GM’s Korean factory. Under the GM deal, a new shift scheme in will be tested in the first quarter of 2013.

Hyundai’s union members will vote on the wage agreement on Monday.

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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 8 comments
  • Detroit-X Detroit-X on Aug 30, 2012

    Right or wrong, good or bad, I feel some amount of satisfaction that there is a union in these "other" countries, jacking around the pompous execs, for good or ill, and reducing advantages to manufacturing overseas. What a world, what a world.

    • See 4 previous
    • Bd2 Bd2 on Aug 30, 2012

      @SCE to AUX Methinks Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, Chung, doesn't suffer at all.

  • El scotto El scotto on Aug 30, 2012

    I love the irony of union bashing on the eve of Labor Day weekend.

  • Signal11 Signal11 on Aug 30, 2012

    A part of me says this is collusion between Hyundai execs and the union bosses to drive the price of Sonatas higher. Shortcut to going upmarket the slow way.

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