Kia workers to stage partial strike amid pandemic

SEOUL, Nov. 19 (Yonhap) -- Unionized workers of Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-biggest carmaker, will stage a partial strike later this month to demand higher wages and bonuses amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the union said Thursday.

Kia Motors and its union have held 13 rounds of meetings in this year's wage talks. The two sides failed to narrow their differences over wages and performance-based bonuses.

Workers will hold two four-hour strikes daily from Nov. 24-27 at its three domestic plants in Gwangmyeong and Hwaseong, both near Seoul, and Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul, a union spokesman said over the phone.

The 30,000-strong union demanded the company increase the monthly basic pay by 120,000 won (US$104) per person and offer 30 percent of its annual operating profit in performance-based pay.

But the company proposed one and a half month of merit-based remuneration, 1.2 million won in special COVID-19 allowance, 200,000 won in gift certificates and certain company stocks in lieu of freezing wages for the year, which the union rejected.

The union also asked the company to build a module components plant for electric and hydrogen vehicles inside Kia's existing plants, not in plants of parts affiliate Hyundai Mobis Co. It has expressed concerns about a possible reduction in the carmaker's assembly line workers due to Hyundai Mobis's plan to build an auto parts plant for the next-generation models.

Last month, the union criticized Kia's decision to put aside 1.26 trillion won in provisions for the recall of the faulty Theta II gasoline direct injection (GDi) engine and quality-related expenses, which sharply drove down the company's third-quarter profits.

"The company was expected to report an operating profit of 1.3 trillion won in the third quarter, but the reflection of the heavy provisions sharply drove down profits," the union said.

In the July-September period, Kia's operating profit plunged 33 percent to 195.23 billion won from 291.47 billion won a year ago.

Its bigger affiliate Hyundai Motor Co. in September sealed the wage deal with its union for the year, reaching a wage agreement without a strike for the second consecutive year.

Hyundai's 49,600-member union accepted the company's proposal that included a freeze on basic pay, a one-off bonus amounting to 150 percent of monthly salary, 1.2 million won in special COVID-19 allowance, 10 company shares and 200,000 won in gift certificates.

It is the third time the company and the union agreed on a wage freeze, after the 1998 Asian financial crisis and the 2009 global financial crisis.

Kia has eight plants in Korea -- two in Gwangmyeong, three in Hwaseong and three in Gwangju -- and seven overseas ones -- three in China and one each in the United States, Slovakia, Mexico and India. Their overall capacity is 3.84 million units.

From January to September, Kia's operating profit plunged 45 percent to 784.85 billion won from 1.42 trillion won in the year-ago period due to the impact of the pandemic on production and sales.

Its vehicle sales fell 7.2 percent to 2,129,851 autos in the January-October period from 2,294,295 a year ago.

kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr
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