Hyundai Heavy Industries Union Begins Vote on 3rd Tentative Agreement

On the 6th, union members are protesting atop a turnover crane at Hyundai Heavy Industries Ulsan headquarters in Dong-gu, Ulsan.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] The Hyundai Heavy Industries Labor Union began a vote on the third tentative agreement on wages and collective bargaining at 7 a.m. on the 16th.

This tentative agreement covers the two years of 2019 and 2020 and was presented again on the 13th after the previous two agreements were rejected in union votes. It includes an increase of 51,000 KRW in the frozen 2020 base salary and the removal of disciplinary records for about 2,000 workers who were disciplined due to strikes during the company's split process in 2019.

The overall tentative agreement includes base salary increases for both 2019 and 2020, payment of annual bonuses and incentives, and provision of welfare points or gift certificates. The company expects that if the tentative agreement passes, each worker will receive an average of about 18 million KRW. Both labor and management also agreed to withdraw various lawsuits against each other.

If the third tentative agreement is approved in the vote, the Hyundai Heavy Industries wage and collective bargaining agreement will be settled after about 2 years and 2 months. Earlier, the first and second tentative agreements were presented in February and April of this year, respectively, but both failed to pass union member votes. Until just before the third tentative agreement was announced, there were full-scale strikes and crane occupation protests. The voting results are expected to be announced late in the afternoon on the same day.