Owners consider suing Kia union for lost revenue

Empty trailers for carrying export vehicles line up on the road in front of Kia Motors’ main plant in Gwangmyeong yesterday. [NEWSIS]

Kia Motors Corp., Korea’s second-largest automaker, said yesterday it was considering filing a complaint against its union with the police because the union staged a partial strike over salary demands.
Kia’s 28,000 union members also walked off their jobs for eight hours yesterday in the second work stoppage this week after it failed to close the gap with management over wage demands.
“The management is considering taking legal action against union leaders,” said Kang Hyun-geun, a Kia spokesman, citing production losses caused by the union’s partial strikes over the past two weeks.
Last week, Kia’s union laid down their tools for two days to protest Korea’s free trade agreement with the United States. On Tuesday, the union staged an eight-hour partial strike over wages.
The four days of partial strikes have caused the company to lose production of 6,818 vehicles, valued at 99.6 billion won ($108 million), Kang estimated.
That may hinder Kia’s goal of turning an operating profit of 390 billion won this year, according to industry sources.
On Wednesday and Thursday, Kia’s management and union met at the automaker’s main plant in Gwangmyeong, just south of Seoul, to try to resolve the wage dispute. Negotiations broke down when the company didn’t present a counteroffer to the union’s demand.
The union is demanding an 8.9 percent raise in basic salary and a special bonus equivalent to two months’ salary.
Union officials said they will hold a meeting to decide future strike actions. In a statement released earlier in the day, the union accused the management of not conducting “sincere” negotiations.
Kia Motors is an affiliate of Hyundai Motor Co., the biggest automaker in Korea. Yonhap