Hyundai Motor union to double partial strike hours as negotiations stall
Day-shift workers will strike from 10:50 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and night-shift employees will do the same from 7:30 p.m. to 12:10 a.m. the following day, potentially halting production for up to eight hours a day.
Hyundai Motor day-shift workers leave the company's Ulsan plant two hours early during a partial strike on July 13.YONHAP
Hyundai Motor’s labor union will escalate its strike by staging longer partial walkouts as wage and collective bargaining negotiations remain at a deadlock.
The union said on Thursday that it will stage four-hour partial strikes for each shift from next Monday through Wednesday. It previously staged two-hour partial strikes for each shift on Monday through Wednesday.
Day-shift workers will strike from 10:50 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and night-shift employees will do the same from 7:30 p.m. to 12:10 a.m. the following day. Combined, the walkouts could halt production for up to eight hours a day.
The union is demanding that the company increase monthly base pay by 149,600 won ($100), not including regular seniority raises; raise bonuses to 800 percent of base pay from the current 750 percent; allocate 30 percent of the previous year’s net profit to employees as performance incentives; extend the retirement age; and reinstate dismissed workers.
Talks between labor and management have shown little progress since their 15th round of negotiations on July 8. The union’s central dispute countermeasures committee will meet next Thursdayto discuss their next steps.
The union added that it would suspend planned strikes on days when formal negotiations take place.
The company expressed concern over the escalating labor dispute.
“Contrary to their original purpose, wage negotiations are resulting in strikes because of issues unrelated to wages, including reinstating dismissed workers, […] extending the retirement age and raising bonuses,” representatives from Hyundai Motor’s management said in a statement.
Hyundai Motor labor and management representatives meet at the Ulsan plant for wage negotiations on May 6.NEWS1
“Operating profit fell 19.5 percent [in 2025] from a year earlier and declined another 30.8 percent in the first quarter of this year,” the company continued. “We presented the best proposal that we could after taking business conditions into account.”
A prolonged strike could disrupt production across the auto industry.
Last year, three rounds of partial strikes by the Hyundai Motor union disrupted the production of about 7,000 vehicles and resulted in an estimated 300 billion won in financial losses. Industry observers say that this year’s losses could exceed last year’s if the strike continues.
The outcome of these wage negotiations will be a “key variable for the third quarter,” Shin Young Securities claimed in a recent report. Hyundai Motor’s earnings in the first half of this year were affected by sluggish domestic sales and a fire at supplier Anjun Industrial, which disrupted production. As a result, a smooth conclusion to the wage negotiations and the launch of Avante will be crucial to the company’s recovery, according to the brokerage.
Labor unions at other automakers are stepping up industrial action as well. The Kia union is scheduled to hold a strike authorization vote next Thursday. The GM Korea union plans to resume negotiations with its management next Monday but has also scheduled a four-hour strike for each shift that day.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
