SEOUL: Workers at South Korea's largest carmaker Hyundai Motor will stage a weekend overtime ban before a possible strike next week, union officials said Tuesday.
The 44,000-strong union will vote Thursday on whether to strike in support of an 8.9 percent pay increase, an extension of the retirement age from 58 to 60 and a halt to the allocation of work to overseas plants.
"We will reject extra work Saturday and Sunday," union leader Lee Jung-Hee told AFP, adding that the union could stage a strike anytime from next Tuesday unless its demands are met. The company has offered a 5.4 percent pay rise. "Formal talks broke down but we are still willing to compromise through working-level talks which have been under way with management," Lee said.
Meanwhile the main plant of Hyundai's affiliate Kia Motors remained crippled Tuesday due to a strike by temporary workers seeking better wages and job security.
About 400 workers from Kia's subcontractors have occupied the plant at Hwaseong, 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Seoul, for five days since Thursday.
The walkout began after Kia's unionised permanent workers on August 16 accepted a 5.2 percent rise in monthly basic salary, ending six weeks of partial strikes that cost more than 360 billion won.
Strikes have become almost an annual event at the Hyundai Automotive Group, the world's sixth largest, since its union was launched in 1987 in the wake of a pro-democracy popular uprising.
In 2006 strikes cost 115,683 vehicles worth 1.6 trillion won (1.7 billion dollars) at Hyundai Motor alone.
Hyundai workers staged a 13-day strike over a disputed year-end bonus in January.
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