Hyundai Motor's Employees to Stage New Strikes on Wage Hikes This Week

Workers of Hyundai Motor in South Korea plan to stage strikes from Thursday through Monday as they enter the sixth year of sit-in protests demanding a payment increase, according to local media.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Hyundai Motor's unionized workers in South Korea will hold strikes from Thursday through Monday as they enter the sixth year of sit-in protests demanding a payment increase, local media reported Wednesday.

The worker's union said that it was not satisfied with talks between them and the management following recent strikes, and warned that they would stage further strikes in the future if the situation does not change, the Yonhap news agency reported. According to the media outlet, workers will stage a partial strike for five days, with early and late shifts joining the strikes for only a few several hours on Thursday, Friday, and Monday.

At the most recent strikes, which took place last week on Thursday and then again Monday, the union demanded an increase in their monthly salary by $135, as well as automatic annual pay hikes, and bonuses worth 30 percent of the company's revenue. The workers also requested that the car manufacturer secured their jobs regardless of changes in production and technologies. On Wednesday, management offered its employee's bonuses worth 200 percent of their monthly salary, in the form of an $878 reward, explaining that the company had been facing a decline in revenues.

Hyundai's monthly sales in China have been falling since March, reportedly due to growing anti-Korean sentiment, in light of China opposing the deployment of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense systems in neighboring South Korea.