Going to Court Receivership?
With respect to the normalization of Kumho Tire, a conflict between its creditors and labor union is going to extremes. The creditors set the end of March as the deadline for the labor union’s acceptance at the end of this month, but the labor union refused to negotiate and raised voices for a general strike and a sit-in in front of Kumho Tire Headquarters in Seoul.
According to the labor union on March 5, unionists are scheduled to hold a Labor Dispute Countermeasure Committee meeting on March 6 and go on a four-hour partial strike at Gwangju, Goseong and Pyeongtaek Factories on March 9. The labor union is planning to raise the level of its struggle by checking whether or not the creditors will change their position while proceeding with the partial strike.
"We will finally ask the creditors' final position on selling off Kumho Tire to Doublestar on March 9," a labor union official said. “If creditors do not withdraw its demand, we will stage a general strike on March 15." Unionists also planned to raise the level of struggle instead of giving consent on March 26 which the creditors proposed as the deadline for the labor union. The labor union is scheduled to hold the rally to demand withdrawal of plan to sell off Kumho Tire to foreign company before the headquarters building of the KDB Bank, the main creditor bank, the National Assembly, and political parties' offices in Seoul from March 26 to 30.
On the other hand, it is concerned that the labor union’s partial strike will deepen Kumho Tire's liquidity crisis. “The partial strike by the labor union caused a production disruption at domestic workplaces such as Gwangju and Goseong Factories,” Kumho Tire said in a public announcement on the day. The union has staged a partial strike for four and two hours on March 3 and 4, respectively. As a result, Kumho Tire posted eight billion won in loss. The figure is the company’s daily average sales volume. Kumho Tire is suffering from a liquidity crisis to such an extent that that the company has not been unable to pay salaries to employees for two months since January this year.