Kia Korea signs its union’s wage deal without any strike

Kia Corp. revealed on Monday, Aug. 30, that it has signed a wage deal with its labor union. It was reported that this is the first time in 10 years that the South Korean automaker immediately reached an agreement to this kind of negotiation without the union taking action.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Kia employees numbering 26,945 voted for wage proposals that include a pay hike of ₩75,000 or around $64.30 in basic monthly pay, cash bonuses of ₩5.8 million, and two months of performance-based wage pay. It was reported that 68% of the workers have voted in favor of the offers, while over 1,600 members of the union have abstained.

However, there is one thing that Kia Motors has rejected from the union’s demand. It did not accept the request for the retirement age to be extended to 65 years from the current 60. The company did not agree to the call for the reinstatement of fired employees as well. But despite this, most of the labor union members did not protest any more.

At any rate, Kia Motors’ parent company, Hyundai Motor Co., also signed a new wage deal with its union, and it happened without a strike as well. It was said that this is the third time that the company reached a deal with its workers without a strike since 2018.

Meanwhile, General Motors Korea also accepted the wage proposal of its labor union not long ago, but it still needs to be finalized. Things are progressing well, though, so it seems there will be no protest too.

GM Authority reported that GM Korea’s labor union voted recently for the wage deal and gained 66% approval after a two-day voting period. It was said that more or less 4,600 of the members out of the total 7,012 workers voted in favor of the new deal with the Korean unit of the Detroit, Michigan-headquartered carmaker.

Unlike Kia Motors, GM Korea’s union and management previously held a meeting, but they have failed to reach an agreement as the former rejected the company’s offer of ₩30,000 or a $25.76 pay increase on basic salary rate and a ₩4.5 million or about $3,864 in incentives. New negotiations finally led to an agreement as GM added gift coupons, advance payments, and even car maintenance coupons to sweeten the deal.