hankyoreh

Minister of Trade

Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Paik Un-gyu visited GM Korea in person to call for labor-management dialogue and a swift resolution to negotiations. Paik’s visit came amid conflict between GM Korea workers and management over the payment of performance-based bonuses as agreed upon last year.

On Apr. 6, Paik visited GM Korea’s factory in Bupyeong to meet individually with president Kaher Kazem and Korean Metal Workers’ Union GM Korea branch leader Im Han-taek. Speaking to Kazem, Paik stressed that labor-management negotiations “need to be concluded quickly to normalize operations at GM Korea.”

“For the company to convince the union and use that as a basis for normalization, it needs sincere actions and a clear commitment to medium- and long-term investment,” he said.

Over seven rounds of wage and collective negotiations through Mar. 30, the GM Korea union insisted on more specific plans regarding the introduction of new models. GM Korea previously presented abstract plans for compact SUVs to be produced at the Bupyeong plant and CUVs as the Changwon plant beginning in 2020 and 2022, respectively.

At the same time, GM Korea announced that it would not be able to pay performance bonuses of 4.5 million won (U$4,200) per worker as agreed upon in wage and collective negotiations last year, prompting the union to seize the president’s office by force and launch a two-day occupation.

“This labor-management conflict has been a routine occurrence, and if it continues it will be difficult to win public support and decrease the likelihood of government support,” Paik told Kazem.

Addressing the union, Paik called on it to “avoid extreme actions” and stressed the need to “make a magnanimous decision for the sake of a swift resolution.”

“There are concerns that if the labor-management negotiations are not resolved quickly, it will lead to problems for the normalization of GM’s operations and hurt many partner companies,” he added.

“Time is not on the side of the union or of management. The longer this drags out, the more everyone is faced with a difficult situation,” he continued.

GM Korea’s workers and management have been unable to come up with a new bargaining schedule since Mar. 30.

“We’ve asked the company for a date, but they aren’t giving us one,” said a union official.

In an earlier representatives’ meeting, the GM Korea union agreed on a basic pay freeze and non-payment of performance bonuses this year. But its conflict has continued with the GM Korea management, which maintains that employee benefits also need to be substantially reduced.

By Choi Ha-yan, staff reporter

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