April 19, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Efforts to revive a ruptured investment project between Gwangju City and Hyundai Motor are under way, a government official said on Jan. 28.

“We are talking with Hyundai and the labor union again in order to renegotiate the Gwangju project since our new special employment advisor was appointed on Jan. 16,” the official said. 

Last month, the city and Hyundai nearly completed negotiations to build an assembly line in Gwangju, about 330 kilometers south of Seoul, and hire up to 12,000 employees at half the wages the automaker’s workers currently receive at its main plant in Ulsan, 410 km southeast of Seoul. The city, in turn, was to offer incentives and subsidies to the new plant, which would be capable of producing up to 100,000 vehicles a year.

But a signing ceremony for the agreement was canceled after Hyundai refused to accept it, citing the last-minute elimination of an agreed clause to defer collective labor agreements until the cumulative output of the new factory reaches 350,000 vehicles. The clause was dropped because of the union’s opposition.

At present, the city is in talks with Hyundai to narrow differences of their opinion over the clause and is seeking cooperation from the union, according to the official.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)