HiteJinro Completes Product Shipment at Gangwon Factory
Transportation Completed Smoothly with Secured Access Routes
HiteJinro "92% of Normal Level, 110,000 Boxes Shipped"
Only Essential Staff Deployed on the 9th... "Expecting Police Cooperation"
[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] HiteJinro, which faced disruptions in beer shipments during the summer peak season due to protests by the Cargo Solidarity under the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, has deployed headquarters staff to its Gangwon factory to resume beer product shipments.
According to HiteJinro on the 8th, from 8 a.m. that day, about 200 headquarters employees were dispatched to the Gangwon factory in Hongcheon-gun, Gangwon Province, to carry out product shipment operations. HiteJinro stated that they were able to ship approximately 110,000 boxes, about 92% of the usual volume.
At the site, about six police companies from the Gangwon Provincial Police Agency and Hongcheon Police Station were deployed. Around 50 members of the Cargo Solidarity remained at the site, but since the police secured access routes early on, no physical clashes occurred. In the afternoon, about 90 union members from the Service Industry Union and the National Plant Construction Union joined the protest temporarily, but no major conflicts arose. From the 9th, HiteJinro plans to continue shipment operations by suspending the deployment of employees to the site with police cooperation and only sending essential personnel for on-site support.
A HiteJinro official said, "Thanks to the police's active assistance in securing access routes, shipments were carried out safely without major conflicts with our employees deployed on-site," adding, "We will strive to ensure normal shipments like today and hope that shipments will continue normally with the police's active cooperation going forward."
This is the first time since the conflict between HiteJinro and the Cargo Solidarity that employees were directly deployed to carry out shipments. At the Gangwon factory, shipment disruptions due to the Cargo Solidarity protests began on the 2nd. The Cargo Solidarity occupied and staged sit-ins at the factory entrance using trucks. The Gangwon factory, which produces beer products such as Terra, Hite, Max, and Filite, accounts for the largest production share among HiteJinro's beer factories. However, since then, shipments have either not been made at all or have been significantly below normal levels, with the shipment rate remaining at about 25% of usual. On the first two days of the protest, the 2nd and 3rd, no products were shipped, and on the 4th (76%) and 5th (25%), shipment rates were significantly lower than usual. No products were shipped on the weekend of the 6th and 7th.
The conflict between HiteJinro and the Cargo Solidarity has continued for five months. About 130 truck owners affiliated with Suyang Logistics, HiteJinro's contracted freight transport company, joined the Cargo Solidarity under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions at the end of March and went on strike. Starting with a partial strike in March, they escalated to a full strike in June, and with the Cargo Solidarity's general strike as a turning point, they have continued obstructive actions such as illegally parking trucks near the entrances of the Icheon and Cheongju factories and blocking access routes. They are demanding increases in transportation fees and empty bottle transportation charges, as well as payments for vehicle advertising, idling, and waiting costs.
HiteJinro is responding by filing civil and criminal lawsuits against those involved in illegal activities and actively requesting crackdowns from local governments and the police, but the truck owners' resistance is intensifying. On the 22nd of last month, 29 union members were arrested on the spot for illegal acts during a rally at HiteJinro's Cheongju factory, and at the Gangwon factory on the 4th and 5th, union members who blocked logistics vehicle movements and refused dispersal orders were also arrested on the spot. The police have requested arrest warrants for four of them. This is the first case under the Yoon Seok-yeol administration where the police used force to forcibly disperse illegal protests.
HiteJinro estimates that direct losses calculated since the full transportation refusal began in June amount to about 5 to 6 billion KRW. Considering overall production and sales losses, the total damage is estimated to be in the range of 10 to 20 billion KRW.
In the alcoholic beverage industry, concerns continue to grow that ongoing labor disputes could disrupt the supply of alcoholic products during the peak summer season. OB Beer, the industry leader, is also facing ongoing labor conflicts with the possibility of strikes looming, raising fears that the situation could escalate into a widespread "beer crisis."
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