Strike ends at Hyundai, but turmoil grinds on

ULSAN ― Five former labor union heads at Hyundai Motor Co. held an emergency meeting on Tuesday right after Lee Heon-gu, one of the former leaders, was charged with receiving a bribe of 200 million won ($213,500) from the company.
The five ex-leaders at the militant labor union of the nation’s top automaker then released a statement that those in management attempting to buy off union heads, and those who received the bribes, should be tracked down.
The two conflicting sides have been repeating a string of strikes and compromises over the past decade, which has led to large sums of money injected into the labor union.
Frequent strikes last year and the 20-day job action this year have cost the world’s seventh-largest automaker 50,000 vehicles in lost production.
Although the union agreed to make up the lost car production volume, ending the strike on Wednesday, the company will have to deal with the expense of overtime.
Working 14 hours on Saturday, each worker at the manufacturing line will receive 240,000 to 250,000 won, almost double the amount they earn during regular workdays.
Even when the company halts paying salaries during the walkout period, increased overtime fees will raise vehicle production costs.
One labor union member said, “Once you enter into a strike, you cannot work when you want to, and you are supposed to work when you want to take a rest.”
A management executive described the phenomenon as a dual loss.
Despite the end of the 2007 strike, it is not the end of extra expenditures Hyundai has to spend for its labor unrest.
It runs a labor-management cooperation team, which is responsible for controlling “key figures” at the labor union that are powerful enough to influence the union members, which total 43,000. The team meets with 1,000 to 2,000 major union figures at least once a month, offering free meals.
That costs up to 240 million won for management, according to estimates by people close to the union, although the company declined to reveal the exact amount.
More than anything else, however, the biggest loss Hyundai experiences from the labor conflict is a plunging brand image, which is hard to put a price tag on, said a marketing executive at the automaker.

By Kim Seung-hyun(JoongAng Ilbo) / Seo Ji-eun (Staff Writer) spring@joongang.co.kr