According to industry sources on Oct. 30, the POSCO Labor Union has taken a step closer to securing the right to strike after receiving 77.79% of the votes in favor during a dispute action vote conducted via mobile on Oct. 28 and 29.
Of the total 11,145 members, 10,756, which is 96.51%, participated in this vote. A total of 8,367 members voted in favor of the strike action, while 2,389 members (22.21%) voted against.
The union will hold its final negotiation with the management this afternoon after the Central Labor Committee’s mediation period expires. If both sides can’t narrow down their differences during this negotiation, they might proceed with a lawful strike.
Despite 24 rounds of wage and collective negotiations since May, the union announced the failure of the talks earlier this month. Even after the announcement, the union, which had applied for mediation with the Central Labor Committee, extended the mediation period once but faced difficulties in the negotiations while sticking to their original demands.
A company representative emphasized, “Despite a more than 50% drop in operating profit in the first half compared to the same period last year, we proposed a higher wage increase rate than previous years.” He stressed the difficulty of accepting demands that are higher than their final proposal.