Hyundai Motor's union chief has called electric cars 'evil' and said they would would destroy jobs.
Ha Bu-young told Reuters he worried about the advent of electric cars which, when they go mainstream, could wreak havoc on traditional auto jobs as they don't require engines and transmissions.
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Hyundai's union has predicted a drastic shift into electric cars could lead to a loss of 70% of Hyundai jobs in a worst case scenario.
"Electric cars are disasters. They are evil. We are very nervous," he told the news agency.
Ha said the union was studying how cars of the future might be built without slashing headcount and has proposed the automaker revive a committee to review the impact of new vehicles and new technology on jobs.
"We're feeling job anxiety. We're feeling a sense of crisis," he told Reuters in an interview.
He said that, at three of Hyundai's five plants in Ulsan, the world's biggest car factory complex, some workers had been asked to take longer holidays as sales of sedans and older model SUVs like the Santa Fe slow in the US and other markets.
Hyundai Motor and affiliate Kia Motors were also hit by diplomatic tensions between Seoul and Beijing last year, leading to a slump in sales in the world's biggest auto market. The two automakers have seen only modest global sales growth in 2018, Reuters noted.
Ha also noted some 30,000 workers out of 50,000 union members will retire in 15 years, which could cushion the impact that cars of the future could have on staffing levels.
Reuters said Hyundai's management had proposed the scaling back of some benefits such as free week-long trips to Europe for 500 workers annually as well as support for some employees' sporting events – a proposal that the union plans to oppose, a union official told the news agency.
But the union will for the first time seek pay raises for temporary workers this year that are higher than those of full time auto workers, responding to criticism that regular auto workers are generously paid.
It will ask for a 7.4% wage increase for temporary workers versus a 5.3% wage raise for regular workers, Ha said, in line with a policy advocated by the umbrella union for South Korea's metal workers.
Last year Hyundai's union initially demanded annual wage increases of 7% for its full-time workers and won a raise of less than 5% after tense negotiations that involved strikes.
The shift towards improving pay for non-full time workers could invite opposition within the union, Ha told Reuters, adding that he was trying to right old wrongs.
