Hyundai Motor's labour union continued to escalate its industrial action, with the launch of a fifth round of strikes this week, undermining South Korea’s leading automaker’s efforts to rebound from a weak performance in the first half of the year amid slowing global sales.
This latest rounds of strikes over five working days ending on 25 August, is expected bring the cumulative loss of production since the industrial action began in July to around 62,000 vehicles, worth some KRW 2.6 trillion (US$ 1.8 billion), according to local reports citing a source close to the matter.
Union workers planned to stage four-hour partial strikes across two shifts on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, followed by a full eight-hour full-scale strike on Friday, the first full strike in ten years. Further four-hour walk-outs are planned for Monday and Tuesday next week, over two shifts.
In the first seven months of 2026, Hyundai’s global sales fell by almost 5% to 2,286,554 units, down from 2,402,474 units in the same period last year.
