Due to Labor Dispute?
Mary Barra, the top executive officer of the largest automaker General Motors (GM) in the United States, was going to visit Korea on August 30, but her scheduled visit has been unexpectedly cancelled.
GM Korea said on August 24 that GM Chairwoman Mary Barra’s visit to Korea has been delayed due to unavoidable changes in her schedule.
Initially, the chairwoman planned to pay her first visit after her inauguration to Korea on the upcoming August 30 so as to offer a special speech on the outlook of the global automobile market and the future technology strategy of GM at a luncheon meeting hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM).
She was also going to visit GM Korea’s plant in Bupyeong to be briefed on the current conditions of its business.
Some analysts claim that the cancellation of her visit might be attributable to the conflicts between labor and management including the strike staged by GM Korea’s labor union, which has been in conflict with the management during wage collective negotiations. The labor union has been on a partial strike for four hours a day since August 11, and reportedly some union members have recently been to Singapore to meet the top-level executives of GM instead of negotiating with the management of its Korean unit.