Strikes begin at two Kumho plants

Unionised workers at Kumho Tire’s Gwangju and Gokseong factories in South Korea have gone on strike, the Yonhap News Agency reports. According to Yonhap, the workers’ union said a general strike began on 16 August in order to secure higher wages; a walkout took place in the Gwangju plant at 6:30am and half an hour later in Gokseong. The news service shares that the strike follows the end of a union-led partial walkout by 3,100 workers that lasted a month and also centred on wage and “other outstanding differences.”

Kumho intends to operate the plants with non-union labour even though this means operating at less than ten per cent capacity and losing 7 billion won (£3.9 million) a day, Yonhap writes. The tyre maker is allegedly also considering implementing a lockout against the striking workers.

In addition to a 13 per cent salary increase, the workers’ union seeks a transferral of temporal workers onto regular payrolls and the reinstatement of dismissed workers.