This year the Big 3 shipbuilders sat across the table for wage negotiations between labor and management.
On Sept. 22, the labor union of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) voted for and reached a wage agreement during its general meeting. Among them, 63.2 percent, or 4,340, voted in favor and passed the agreement.
Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD), which held a vote on the wage and collective bargaining reached a tentative agreement and on the same day, also passed the agreement. In the vote, 2,710 out of 2,812 members took part, with the voter turnout of 96.4 percent; 59.2 percent, or 1,603, voted in favor. This voting sets a new record of wage negotiations being successfully conducted without a strike for 19 straight years, since 1997.
But, still a difference of opinion exists between the labor and management of Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), the world’s largest shipbuilding company. Negotiation still continues. As SHI and DSME of the ‘Big Three’ firms have come up with a tentative agreement to freeze the base pay, the labor and management of HHI will conclude the agreement with similar levels.” However, the settlement is expected to take place after Chuseok, or Korean Thanksgiving Day.
According to shipbuilding industry sources, labor and management also agreed to come up with measures to revitalize the employee welfare fund and improve the treatment of subcontract workers.
Source: Business Korea
