For 15 straight years, the Hyundai Group Trade Union Council has gone on strike every year in protest of wage cuts, working conditions and numerous other issues. That streak ended this week as the Union agreed to wage freezes without going on strike. This has been actually fairly large news as I've seen numerous news groups reporting on the news event which should give you an idea on how militant the Hyundai Group Trade Union Council is historically.
This itself isn't that shocking if one has been paying attention to labor news. Earlier this year the Hyundai union voted in a more "moderate" union President who openly ran on the grounds he will be less political and hostile than previous leaders. Overall, there seems to be a major gutting of the militancy within Korea's auto-unions, traditionally a very militant workforce. Along with the stuff involving Hyundai, the gutting of the Ssangyong Union's militant union members also is going to have lasting impact on labor relations in the auto industry. How far this goes is still up in the air especially among the small domestic auto companies in Korea where militancy and class conflict is still common.
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