Unionized workers at GM Korea on Sept. 9 staged a full-scale strike for the first time in 22 years as they demand an increase in wages despite warnings from the company’s global headquarters.
The automaker’s 10,000-member union launched the walkout at the plants in Incheon and Changwon, some 400 kilometers south of Seoul, and plans to continue to strike through Sept. 11.
![]() |
“Unless the company comes up with improved wage offers, we‘ll continue to strike,” a GM Korea union spokesman said.
This is the first time that the GM Korea union has launched a full-scale strike since the automaker became a part of US-based auto giant General Motors in 2002. They staged a full-scale strike in 1997 when the company was under now-defunct Daewoo Group.
The union has been demanding a 5.7-percent hike in basic monthly salary, one and a half months of wages in performance-based pay and a cash bonus worth 6.5 million won ($5,400) per worker.
GM Korea has balked at the union’s requests, saying that the company is still mired in losses and suffering from declining sales, among other reasons.
The three-day strike will disrupt production of nearly 10,000 vehicles. Last year, GM Korea manufactured 444,816 units, down 43 percent from a year earlier.
By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)