GM Korea Workers Vote To Strike Amid Stalling Negotiations
Amid stalling wage and production negotiations between GM Korea and its workers, the latter have voted to strike.
Reuters reports 69 percent of the 14,016-strong workforce voted to put down their tools and walk out for the fourth consecutive year unless a deal is reached between the workers’ union and management over a change in GM Korea’s 60-year-old wage scheme along with a production increase. A representative for the union claimed that “both sides remain committed to reaching a fair and reasonable labour agreement based on mutual trust and understanding,” however.
The demands come on the heels of a 2013 ruling by South Korea’s supreme court proclaiming fixed bonuses should be considered as part of a worker’s base wage. If successful, GM Korea’s workers would see an increase in overtime and severance pay among other statutory benefits, all adjusted accordingly in proportion to base pay.
Meanwhile, the subsidiary’s CEO, Sergio Rocha, warned that if a strike were to occur, the action would threaten both production and job security, and urged his employees to step away from the abyss before all is lost.
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Isn't this exactly what GM wants them to do? China is their future and propping up western imbeciles is their present, which doesn't leave much love for Korea.
I'm not sure GM wants to abandon all the tooling and production capacity at once. A major portion of GM Asian sales are from Korea, and that can't be replaced overnight from China.
I know there was a TTAC poster who lives (lived) in Korea... for him/her, the following question: Are the other Korean auto manufacturers as prone to strikes as the GM plants are? I haven't heard anything. Or are Hyundai/Kia doing something different, labor relations-wise, that prevents such strikes?
I don't know how some companies would be "prone" to strike, but say for example a Kit Kat bar, or Snickers you used to eat aside that peanut butter and jealy sandwich on a lunch break from 12-13 hours of back breaking labor jumped from 5 cents to 15 cents in a period of 5years(96-2001) then jumped another 400 percent(01-05) to 50 cents. Now that candy bar costs a dollar. This is a mere inevitbale tactical negotiations for them to survive. But I do think factories in China it's more of a trend, since that candy bar still costs 5 cents.