Key facts
- Hyundai Motor's South Korean union reached a tentative wage agreement with management.
- The deal includes a 100,000 won monthly base salary increase.
- It also includes a performance bonus, welfare points, and a commitment to hire 500 new technical workers annually from 2024 to 2028.
- The agreement averts a full strike that had threatened production at the company's largest Ulsan plant.
- The union had raised concerns about job security due to the adoption of robotics and artificial intelligence.
Hyundai Motor's South Korean union has reached a tentative agreement with management, averting a full strike that had been planned for Friday. The deal includes a 100,000 won monthly increase in base salary, along with a performance bonus and welfare points. Additionally, the company has committed to hiring 500 new technical workers annually from 2024 until 2028.
The union had previously staged its first full strike in a decade after wage talks stalled, demanding higher retirement ages and job protections against the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence and automation in manufacturing. Union leaders expressed concerns that the company, which is developing humanoid robots, might replace human workers with new technologies and sought guarantees for increased hiring to offset potential job losses.
The tentative agreement is crucial as it prevents the suspension of production at Hyundai's largest automobile factory in Ulsan, which has an annual capacity of approximately 1.5 million vehicles, representing about a quarter of the company's total output.