SEOUL: Workers at South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries have endorsed a strike motion, threatening the first walkout at the world's largest shipbuilder for 18 years, a union spokesman said Thursday.
More than 97 percent of about 10,000 workers who took part in the vote Wednesday approved the motion after marathon pay negotiations with management broke up on September 19.
"Negotiations will resume Friday and it will depend on what will come of the talks as to whether we will launch a strike," union spokesman Kim Hyeong-Gyun told AFP.
Union demands include a 6.5 percent rise in basic pay and a one-off bonus equal to 10 weeks' wages.
Kim said young workers had traditionally filled out their low basic salary packages with bonuses and by working overtime.
"But the company started cutting overtime pay and bonuses last year, citing a weaker balance sheet," he said.
South Korean shipbuilders have been hit by a global economic slowdown and growing competition from Chinese rivals over the past several years.
Hyundai Heavy suffered its worst ever quarterly slump in the second quarter to June, logging a net loss of 617 billion won ($585 million).
The was a reverse from 66.8 billion won net profit a year earlier. (AFP)
