Alarmed by Strike at DSME
As subcontract workers’ strike at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) continues for nearly 50 days, the nation's other shipbuilders including Hyundai Heavy Industries are keeping a close eye on the development of the situation.
On July 20, Hyundai Heavy Industries Group called a meeting of presidents of major group affiliates to discuss measures aimed at preventing a situation like that at DSME from taking place.
The meeting was presided over by Kwon Oh-gap, chairman of HD Hyundai, the group's holding company, and participants included Chung Ki-sun, president of HD Hyundai, and Ka Sam-hyun, vice president of Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering.
The management meeting was held only three months after a similar meeting was called in April to assess the business environment and discuss measures to overcome difficulties.
The latest meeting was convened out of the perception that now is not a booming period for the shipbuilding industry, but a crisis. “We are facing a complex crisis in which internal and external negative factors overlap,” Kwon emphasized at the meeting.
The presidents of the group's 10 affiliates shared their ideas to cope with various risk factors, such as global inflation, interest rate hikes, the prolongation of the Russian-Ukraine war, and a renewed surge in COVID-19 cases. At the same time, they checked the direct and indirect impacts of the DSME incident.
At Hyundai Heavy Industries, the labor and management held an ice-breaking meeting and began full-fledged wage collective bargaining negotiations for 2022 on the day before. The labor unions of the three shipbuilders -- Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries -- of Hyundai Heavy Industries Group delivered their joint demands to the company. The demands included an increase of 142,300 won in basic wages (7.55 percent of the base wage based on Hyundai Heavy Industries workers’ salaries). It is said that this is the first time that the three companies’ labor unions have come up with joint demands. Since Hyundai Construction Equipment and Hyundai Electric are also participating, class action is possible in some cases. In addition to the basic wage increase, the joint demands included the introduction of a right to recommend a candidate in the labor director system, the abolition of the wage peak system and subsidizing one million won a year for dental prosthetics.
DSME’s labor union is reportedly demanding a raise similar to that of the Hyundai Heavy Industries labor union in terms of basic pays. Samsung Heavy Industries is currently in the process of wage negotiations between the labor and management.