Workers at top South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor yesterday voted to strike for better pay and working conditions — a year after ending the costliest dispute in the company’s history.
Ignoring an appeal from management, labor unions at Hyundai and affiliate Kia Motors opted for industrial action, which will begin after a legally binding period of mediation that typically lasts about 10 days.
Hyundai’s union wants a 130,500 won (US$120) increase in basic monthly salary for workers, a performance-based bonus equivalent to eight month wages and a one-off shared cash payment for members amounting to US$2.4 billion — or 30 percent of last year’s net profit.
Kia’s union has presented similar proposals.
The Hyundai management had tried to avoid a costly stoppage with a message to unionized workers saying the company could not afford to meet their demands at a time of heightened competition and slowing growth in overseas markets.
“We’ve seen a decline in our earnings because foreign brands quickly eat into our domestic market share and the economy at home and abroad remains sluggish,” the message said.
The union staged 28 partial strikes between July and September last year, cutting production by more than 82,000 vehicles valued at 1.7 trillion won.
Kia lost an estimated 1.03 trillion won to industrial action last year.
Hyundai’s second-quarter net profit this year fell 1 percent from a year earlier to 2.52 trillion won.
RECALLS
Separately, Hyundai is recalling 239,000 Sonata and Azera sedans in cold-weather US states because road salt can corrode the rear suspension.
The recall affects 215,000 Sonata midsize sedans from the 2006 to 2010 model years, and 24,000 Azera full-size sedans from 2006 to 2011.
Hyundai says salt can corrode the rear suspension crossmember, which is part of the vehicle’s frame. In advanced cases, the crossmember could detach from the control arms that lead to the wheels, which could affect wheel alignment and increase the risk of a crash.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS