Daily strikes at GM Korea assembly plants are set to continue after the majority of unionized workers rejected a contract proposal from the automaker.
According to Reuters, GM Korea and the local labor union agreed to a preliminary contract last week that would have seen the automaker’s assembly line workers receive a lump sum payment of about four million won, or roughly $3,600 USD, early next year. Only 45 percent of union members voted to ratify the contract, however, sending the automaker and the union back to the negotiating table for yet another time.
GM Korea and the labor union have held 24 rounds of negotiations since July, according to Reuters. Workers have been staging two four-hour strikes daily for the past two weeks as they demand a higher yearly bonus and new vehicle allocation at the automaker’s Korean plants. GM Korea workers also want to sign a one-year work contract rather than the two-year deal the automaker has proposed.
GM Korea CEO Kaher Kazem
Steve Kiefer, president of GM international operations, said last month that persistent labor relations problems in South Korea may force the automaker to look elsewhere when deciding where to build certain vehicles in the future. The automaker said previously that strikes in the past two weeks have cost it 25,000 vehicles in lost production – a particularly costly problem when vehicle inventories were already low due to the COVID-19 pandemic earlier in the year.
“We’re basically being held hostage in the short term by lack of vehicle production,” Kiefer said. “That’s having a very significant short-term financial impact.”
“We would prefer to make this model work but as of now, we’re losing confidence that we’re going to be able to continue to invest in (South Korea).”
GM currently builds the Buick Encore, Chevy Trax, Chevy Trailblazer and Buick Encore GX at its Bupyeong Assembly plant in South Korea, while the Chevy Spark hatchback is produced at the smaller Changwon Assembly plant in the country.
Discussions between GM Korea and the labor union remain ongoing.
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Comments
One year seems like a very short time period of “stability” before workers potentially start striking again. It also seems like they’re showing GM exactly why they should NOT allocate any new products to South Korea, and should instead be looking to produce vehicles elsewhere. (Unfortunately, that probably means China.)
Without Trump making China public enemy number 1 in the news every day, it’s just a matter of time before GM leaves Korea. Why these people can’t see that and behave is beyond me.
The likelihood of myself buying a vehicle, motor, or transmission that was designed or built in Communist China is less than 0%. I would also go out of my way to dissuade others from buying such a GM product.
If the USA can presser China to treat ALL people including the Uighur minority fairly and humanly and impose better environmental regulations I don’t mind buying from China
South Koreans are A-Holes as many in the country view Americans as the cause of the problem with North Korea; this is why some would wish that the United States withdraws all US troops so that reunification with the North has a chance.
i thought the trump-kim bromance fixed the north korea problem.
nope, he just made it worse.
Most South Koreans I know have no desire for reunification. They know the infrastructure in the North needed to integrate the North in a Democratic Korea would create a terrible 20 year drag on their economy. They saw how German reunification played out in a richer country both East & West Germany and they would be more happy just to have a peaceful neighbor.
It’s a political story, but because you misunderstand it.
Koreans don’t hate Americans.
I don’t know why you’re thinking weird. Are you Chinese?
And I don’t want GM to withdraw from Korea.
Because if GM withdraws, I will be forced to ride Hyundai.
In Korea, Hyundai Motor Company does not receive a good warranty system or service like the US Hyundai Motor Company.
Hyundai Motor Company’s car price is higher in Korea than in the United States, and the warranty period is shorter.
Sometimes the consumer has to prove the cause of the car breakdown.
Lordstown or Oshawa Assembly workers could quality build anything currently built by workers in South Korea spend the tooling funds and spread the allocation so they can’t blackmail the GM Corporation continually !
GM no longer owns the Lordstown plant. So that ain’t happening.
The important content is missing, so I talk.
All strikes are for money, but GM Korea has more stories.
It is to produce a new car.
There are two small factories in Korea.
Factory 1 produces trail blazers.
Factory 2 produces Trax and Malibu.
In the case of Factory 2, since both Trax and Malibu are old models, sales are declining, so there is no job.
That is why the union wants a new model that will utilize the second Factory .
As an alternative, the union calls for the production of electric vehicles.
Because LG batteries and motors supplied to electric vehicles are produced in Korea
Now, since LG batteries produced in Korea are exported to the US and assembled in the US, unnecessary transportation charges are incurred.
It is intended to be produced in Korea.
I am not an employee of GM Korea, so I don’t know the exact thing.
The unions are concerned because they are known to the media that their stories are not communicated and that they always claim “salary increases”.
Screw Korea build them in North America meaning USA, Canada or Mexico. Think of America before $$$
Go cry for trump, MAGA.
Well I was wondering why my Encore GX, ordered mid June was taking so long to be shipped to NY. Dang!