About 1,800 exhausted construction workers ended their nine-day seizure of Posco yesterday, the steelmaker said, a day after the government threatened a crackdown.
The striking laborers, who do subcontracting work for the company, gave up their occupation of the 12-story headquarters building in Pohang, about 370km southeast of Seoul, around 5am yesterday, said Choi Doo-jin, a Posco official in Seoul.
The workers had apparently become exhausted and the strike leadership had lost sway over them, said a police official in Pohang, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing police policy.
PHOTO: AP
He said 115 of the workers involved were arrested after the surrender.
The strikers wanted Posco, the world's fifth-largest steelmaker, to get involved in their collective bargaining. But the company has said it has no direct connection to the dispute, which it says is between the workers and their companies.
Operations at the building, where about 600 people normally work, had been paralyzed since the unrest began after negotiations between the companies and the workers seeking higher wages and better working conditions failed.
The steelmaker reported no disruptions to steel production or shipments to customers, but said the sit-in was costing 10 billion won (US$10.5 million) a day because of delays in construction projects.
Separately, Hyundai Motor Co officials were meeting with its striking labor union yesterday, the company said, amid reported optimism that the debilitating walkout may be close to an end.
South Korean Labor Minister Lee Sang-soo was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying a deal to end the strike was near and could come as early as yesterday. Lee told reporters that labor and management have compromised on most of the issues, Yonhap said.
Hyundai spokesman Oles Gadacz confirmed that company and union officials were meeting yesterday, but had no information on how the talks were proceeding.
The latest attempt to negotiate a conclusion to the nearly month-long strike came as production losses mounted to 83,710 vehicles worth 1.15 trillion won (US$1.21 billion), according to figures provided by Gadacz.
Hyundai's unionized workers have been laying down tools for parts of the day since June 26, demanding a 9.1 percent increase in basic salary, higher incentives and better working conditions.
Strikes are virtually an annual event at Hyundai, where the company's labor union has walked out every year but one since 1987. Last year's strike ended after Hyundai and the union agreed on a 6.9 percent salary increase.
The strike has taken an increasing toll on South Korea's largest automaker.
The company said on Thursday that it had been forced to suspend exports, but that it had about three months' worth of inventory already shipped overseas so anticipated no immediate disruption in supplying dealers.
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