Hyundai Motor, Union Tentatively Agree on Wage Deal After Strike-Hit Talks
Key Takeaways
- •The tentative agreement, reached at the 17th round of negotiations, raises monthly base pay by 100,000 won ($72.20), provides a performance bonus worth more than 400 percent of monthly salary, and adds a one-time payment of 12.5 million won.
- •Hyundai and the union agreed to extend the retirement age from 60 to 65, contingent on revision of related laws, at a time when South Korea's statutory retirement age remains 60 amid a national debate driven by rapid population aging.
- •A union vote scheduled for Aug. 31 will decide ratification, and approval would conclude this year's wage negotiations.
- •During the talks, the 400,000-member union staged 60 hours of strikes, including its first full-day walkout in a decade, causing an estimated 55,200 vehicles in lost production and more than 2.3 trillion won in lost sales.
- •Management and labor jointly endorsed physical AI and robotics as essential to the company's future, and Hyundai plans to deploy humanoid robots at its Georgia plant in the US starting in 2028 before expanding their use to other facilities.
Hyundai Motor Co. and its labor union reached a tentative wage agreement early Tuesday, moving to close out a bargaining round marked by strikes and production disruptions at South Korea's largest automaker.
The breakthrough came at the 17th round of talks. Under the proposed deal, monthly base pay will rise by 100,000 won ($72.20), workers will receive a performance bonus worth more than 400 percent of monthly salary, and an additional payment of 12.5 million won will be made, the automaker said in a release.
The two sides also agreed to extend the retirement age from the current 60 to 65, contingent on the revision of related laws and regulations. The clause reaches beyond the company itself: South Korean law sets the statutory retirement age at 60, and extending working lives has become part of a wider national debate as the country faces one of the world's fastest-aging populations.
If the agreement is approved in a union vote scheduled for Aug. 31, this year's wage negotiations will be concluded.
This year's talks followed an unusually intense labor campaign. The 400,000-member union, one of South Korea's largest and long known for its assertive bargaining, staged a combined 60 hours of strikes, resulting in about 120 hours of production disruptions across two shifts. The action included a full-day strike on Friday, the union's first such walkout in 10 years. According to industry sources, the strikes are estimated to have caused cumulative production losses of around 55,200 vehicles, with lost sales exceeding 2.3 trillion won.
Beyond pay, Hyundai Motor said management and the union shared the view that adopting advanced technologies, including physical artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, is essential to the company's future competitiveness and survival. That joint endorsement carries weight in an auto industry where automation and the transition to new manufacturing technologies have often been flashpoints between management and labor.
"The two sides agreed to transparently share information on new projects and their implementation processes, and jointly respond to future changes in the industry," the company said.
The agreement comes as Hyundai Motor, which bought Boston Dynamics, the developer of the Atlas humanoid robot, from SoftBank in 2021, plans to deploy humanoid robots at its US manufacturing plant in Georgia starting in 2028, with their use set to gradually expand across its other production facilities. (Yonhap)
Source: Korea Herald Business
