Hyundai Motor temporary workers have ended their 25-day occupation of an assembly line at the Ulsan plant.
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The labour union told the Korea Herald temporary and short-term contract workers agreed to hold talks with the management.
The temporary workers, which have a separate union, were said to be talking with Hyundai’s union and the metal workers’ union to coordinate the agenda for the talks.
The metal workers’ union is affiliated with the umbrella group Korean Federation of Trade Unions, to which the temps’ union belongs.
About 570 temps employed by Hyundai’s subcontractors working at the plant began a sit-in strike on 15 November in protest of the carmaker’s unwillingness to directly hire them as permanent employees. There are about temporry employees of Hyundai’s subcontractors working at the plant.
The number of those occupying the assembly line however dwindled to about 260, due to increasing discord among its members and the temp workers’ union failure to gain support from Hyundai’s union, the company said.
The company also said that alterations made to the facility allowing production to be resumed by bypassing the occupied area, and the legal actions taken by the company also acted to pressure the striking workers to end the sit-in strike.
Hyundai has filed criminal charges against 78 strikers, and compensation claims for KRW16.2bn (US$14m) against 419 temps.
According to the company’s estimates, the 25-day strike has cost it nearly 28,000 units in lost production and KRW314.7bn in lost sales.
