[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] After two postponements, the labor and management of Renault Samsung Motors have started the '2020 Wage and Collective Agreement Negotiations.' Amid the heightened crisis in the global automotive industry due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the union is demanding a wage increase, making the negotiations expected to be difficult.
According to Renault Samsung Motors on the 6th, labor and management held a preliminary meeting for the wage and collective agreement negotiations at around 1 p.m. at the Busan plant and discussed for about an hour. This meeting was a greeting session between the representatives of labor and management before the official negotiations, and the union's demands will be delivered at the next meeting. It is known that Dominique Signora, CEO of Renault Samsung Motors, attended and gave a greeting at this preliminary meeting.
Although the preliminary meeting concluded, the problem lies in the upcoming negotiations. The Renault Samsung union has prepared demands including a basic wage increase of 71,687 KRW (4.69%), a one-time payment of 7 million KRW in the name of overcoming COVID-19, and is also requesting the company to contribute 1.2 billion KRW as a development fund. Regarding the collective agreement, they are demanding the integration of the P/S job groups and a single seniority system (P refers to the Busan plant job group, S refers to the sales branch job group), as well as the abolition of the wage peak system.
The management side has responded that such demands are excessive given the difficult business conditions. Renault Samsung Motors is aiming for a recovery through the launch of six new models. However, the impact of COVID-19 in the first half of this year has inevitably caused damage. If the wage and collective agreement negotiations hit a deadlock and conflicts such as strikes occur, Renault Samsung Motors will suffer a fatal blow.
Speedy negotiations are also crucial. Last year, Renault Samsung Motors' labor and management experienced twists and turns such as workplace closures due to differences in wage negotiations, and only managed to reach an agreement in April this year.
In the first half of this year, Renault Samsung Motors saw strong domestic sales with models like the XM3 and QM6, increasing domestic sales by 51.3% to 55,242 units, but exports dropped sharply by 74.8% to 12,424 units. This was largely due to not being assigned the successor model to the Nissan 'Rogue,' whose contract production was discontinued. As a result, Renault Samsung Motors' total sales in the first half of this year remained at 67,666 units, a 21.2% decrease compared to the same period last year.
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