Workers at various companies with roots in South Korea's Hyundai chaebol began to establish labor unions following the June 29 Declaration in 1987. Hyundai executives have been arrested for arranging violent attacks on labor organizers.
History Employees of Hyundai Engine registered the first union in the group on July 6, 1987. Similar attempts by workers at Hyundai's shipyards and Hyundai Motors were thwarted by the registration of yellow unions, triggering demonstrations across the group in August 1987.
The South Korean government urged Hyundai to recognize the workers's new unions. Hyundai Precision Industry workers held executives hostage in its 1988 strikes.
In 2016, the unions of Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Heavy Industries staged their first collective strike in 23 years.
HD Hyundai
In July 1987, thousands of workers at Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) staged unauthorized strikes for days during the Great Workers' Struggle. Regular workers demanded the abolition of precarious employment due to the potential of non-regular workers breaking the 1987 strike. By 1988, most regular and non-regular workers had joined the HHI labor union. In 1989, a 3-month strike at the HHI shipyard was ended by a police raid. The police also cracked down on a three-day strike in 1990, arresting union leaders.
Although regular workers did gain improved conditions, HHI began to expand by increasing non-regular workers, to whom 3D jobs were relegated.
In 1993, HHI workers approved a new wage contract after the government threatened to force a settlement. Starting that year, HHI's management imposed a "no labor, no wages" rule, discouraging walkouts. HHI had a period of no wage-related disputes from the mid-1990s into the late 2000s.
In 2003, an independent non-regular workers union was launched at HHI. In 2004, the KCTU expelled HHI's union for its behavior after a suicide by a contract worker in protest of discrimination against temporary workers. Business unionists, managers, and company police attacked non-regular worker protests and destroyed the funeral parlor. Unionized non-regular workers who protested HHI's reaction to the suicide were dismissed and blacklisted from the industry.
HHI's union was criticized by the Korean Metal Workers’ Union for voluntarily yielding decisions to the company during the 2008 financial crisis. In 2014, unionized workers at HHI staged a partial strike for the first time in 20 years. In 2016, HHI's union rejoined the KMWU after 12 years amidst the company's restructuring. In 2017, HHI's union staged its first full walkout in 23 years amidst the proposed splitting of the firms' units in preparation for merging with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. In 2019, unionized HHI workers went on strike in opposition to the company's plan to merge with DSME. In 2022, unionists at HHI went on joint strike with Hyundai Mipo Dockyard and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries for collective bargaining. Workers at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and HD Hyundai Mipo went on strike to protest merging the two in 2025. In an unusual move, hundreds of foreign workers joined the HD HHI chapter of the KMWU in 2026.
Hyundai Motor Group Hyundai Motor Group affiliates have gone on strike for reasons beyond wage negotiations, in instances such as the 1996–1997 strikes in South Korea, the sale of Daewoo Motors, the U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement, the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, and President Yoon Suk Yeol's declaration of martial law.
Hyundai Motor Company
Domestic The Hyundai Motor union was the largest workplace union in South Korea until 2026. The Hyundai Motor Company union joined the more specialized Federation of Korean Metal Workers Trade Unions in 2006 after it voted to leave the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. As of 2018, there were strikes by the union every year except for four. Full-day strikes have been less frequent.
Strike timeline +Year-straddling is indicated if only sources from one year describing the crossover were located.Although the singular tense "strike" is used, there may have been multiple strikes, depending on the year.YearUnion action1988Strike1989Strike WP:RSP exclusively describing strikes in 1989 not yet located.1990Strike1991Strike 19921993Strike1994No strike1995Strike1996Strike1997Strike1998Strike1999Strike canceledStrike2000Strike 2001Strike2002Strike2003Strike2004Strike2005Strike2006Strike2007Strike2008Strike2009No strike2010No strike2011No strike2012Strike2013Strike2014Strike2015Strike2016Strike2017Strike2018Strike2019No strike2020No strike2021No strike2022No strike2023StrikeAlthough the source for 2024 says that the union did not strike, it describes it in a wage-related context, as other sources sometimes specify. Another source describes an unrelated political strike in 2023.2024Strike2025Strike2026Strike
Contract workers' union In 2010, Hyundai Motor's contract workers' union went on strike to demand permanent jobs while the Supreme Court's creation of a status change threshold was under review. As such protests were illegal under South Korean labor law, the police requested arrest warrants. Hyundai Motor sought compensation from the workers for strike-related losses for such strikes. Two such cases were eventually reviewed by the Supreme Court. In 2014, the Seoul Central District Court ruled that hundreds of subcontracted workers should be regarded as direct Hyundai Motor employees. The settlement included compensation for delinquent wages.
International In March 2002, Hyundai Motor Company retracted a statement that they would seek a relationship with the United Automobile Workers (UAW) in the US.
In 2009 and 2010, workers at Hyundai Motor India went on strike to demand "the rehiring of laid off workers" and the recognition of the labor union rather than "an existing worker's committee". The sacked employees were rehired.
In 2024, more than 30% of Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama plant workers signed cards for joining the UAW.
Kia Motors
The union of Kia Motors went on strike every year between its formation in 1991 and Hyundai's takeover in 1999. It continued to go on regular strikes until 2010 and started again after 2011. The next period of strike-free negotiations started in 2021.
Hyundai Steel Hyundai Steel made a labor deal with unions in 2026, the first such agreement with subcontracted workers after the Yellow Envelope law took effect.
See also
HD Hyundai
Notes
References
Further reading