Hyundai Motor workers seek pay hike amid crisis

SEOUL, Feb. 24 (Yonhap) -- Unionized workers at Hyundai Motor Co. will demand the
automaker raise wages this year despite a global economic crisis that is forcing
production cuts at many of the company's plants, according to the union Tuesday.
The 45,000-strong union will call for a 4.9-percent pay raise, or 87,709 won
(US$58), in monthly basic salary for each worker when the two sides start annual
salary negotiations in April, it said.
The Hyundai union has indicated it would go on strike if the negotiations fail.
Last year, Hyundai and the union agreed on a 5.8 percent pay increase.
"We will make efforts to finalize the negotiations as early as possible," said
Chang Kyu-ho, a union spokesman, citing difficult business conditions at home and
abroad.
Officials with Hyundai's public relations team in Seoul weren't immediately
available for comment.
In January, Hyundai saw its vehicle sales drop 26.7 percent to 179,044 units as
the global economic slump battered worldwide demand for new cars.
Hyundai is cutting working hours and halting some productions lines to cope with
the steep drop in sales and rising inventories of unsold vehicles.
Unlike Japanese rivals such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co., which
have announced thousands of job cuts and plant shutdowns, Hyundai has so far been
better positioned to deal with the global auto industry crisis because of the
South Korean won's weakness versus the U.S. dollar, analysts say.
A weaker won makes Hyundai's cars cheaper overseas and boosts dollar-term profits
when they are converted into the local currency.
Last year, Hyundai's net profit fell 14 percent to 1.4 trillion won, while sales
rose 5.1 percent to 32.2 trillion won.
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