Akerson Uses North Korea To Threaten South Korean Unions

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Last week, GM CEO Dan Akerson said that GM might move production away from South Korea if tensions with North Korea escalate. Today, Korea labor unions said Akerson is using the crisis as a pretext to gain the upper hand in upcoming labor talks.

Akerson said that GM is “making contingency plans for the safety of our employees to the extent that we can,” and while it is difficult to quickly shift production from South Korea, GM might just do that for the long-term.

Killing jobs in South Korea would do very little for employee safety. Union spokesman Choi Jong-hak thinks it’s a flimsy argument:

“It is a message by Akerson to the union saying ‘don’t make excessive demands’… They want to make the union feel jittery,” Choi Jong-hak told Reuters. “It is a threat, as the labor union here is seen as a stumbling block for its restructuring of its global production system.”

GM Korea told its union in November that it would not produce the next-generation Cruze compact in South Korea. Unions have threatened “a war” if GM shifts output to Europe.

GM is South Korea’s second-biggest automaker after Hyundai Motor Group.

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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 5 comments
  • MrWhopee MrWhopee on Apr 09, 2013

    Soon we'll see Kim Jong Un tooling around in a brand new Cadillac, courtesy of 'Uncle Dan'.

  • Mike978 Mike978 on Apr 09, 2013

    What is the issue here? BS and other regularly complain about unions so should, in theory, support assertive management. Unless that management is GM maybe.

  • Schmitt trigger Schmitt trigger on Apr 09, 2013

    "Choi Jong-hak, a spokesman for GM Korea’s labor union, warned the union would “wage a war” if GM shifts output to Europe." I can find the quote now, but Samsung's CTO mentioned that they would wage a war on Apple's patents. Why is it that so many news coming out from Korea nowdays have to have a threat of war? Must be the spicy food.

    • See 1 previous
    • Ect Ect on Apr 09, 2013

      They are speaking Korean, and someone is translating into English. The words they use in Korean may have a different cultutral interpretation than "war" in English. I speak English and French, which share some common linguistic roots. I get to see how headline-writers and politicians translate words spoken in one language in a way that produces quite a diferent emphasis in the other. If that happens between English and French, I can only imagine how easily it could be accomplished (eve inadvertently) between English and Korean. Having said that, it must also be acknowledged that there are very many people in this world who quite enjoy the use of hyperbole and exaggeration to create excitement.

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