Hyundai Pharmaceutical, a mid-sized pharmaceutical company that has gone on a general strike since November 23, marked the 86th day of the strike on February 16.

Hyundai Pharmaceuticals has been on the longest general strike since its founding and is having a cold winter as a result of the "spillover effect" from the recent failure in its push to import a prescription abortion drug.

It is unclear whether the general strike was a factor, but the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety terminated the approval review process after Hyundai Pharmaceutical failed to submit additional data required for domestic approval.

The atmosphere of reconciliation is forming as Hyundai’s management and the union both take a step back from conflicts.

The union has reportedly agreed to accept a pay cut for new employees and a reduction in annual paid leave, which were the biggest issues in the strike.

According to the union, its leaders recently held a meeting and decided to accept two of the company's proposals.

The union also accepted the terms of the 2022 wage negotiations such as a 3% base salary increase and a 20% incentive bonus proposed by the company.

Industry observers believe that the strike is effectively over, as the union has accepted most of the company's proposals.

Meanwhile, the Hyundai Pharmaceutical Labor Union went on strike for the first time in 37 years of its history. The main reason for the strike was reportedly due to a breakdown in communication with the third-generation owner, deepening the labor-management conflict.

The union and management have had more than 20 rounds of negotiations thus far.

In the early stages of negotiations, there was some progress in dialogues, but as time went on, the company’s response became more perfunctory, which drove the union to strike.

A key union official said, "The company's perfunctory response reflected the intentions of the third-generation owner Lee Sang-joon who recently took over sole control of the company. 

Since Mr. Lee’s inauguration as the sole boss of the company, there has been a lot of concern about the management within the company.“

Mr. Lee recently changed the company governance from a co-presidency to a sole presidency following the resignation of former president Kim Young-Hak. He is the grandson of the late Hyundai Pharmaceutical founder Lee Kyu-seok and the eldest son of Chairman Lee Han-koo.

He is the second largest shareholder (4.22%) after Chairman Lee Han-koo (17.88%). He began his management practice in 2003 and solidified his position as a successor in 2012 when he took over as the head of the future strategy division of Hyundai Pharmaceutical. He became CEO in 2018.

[WIKI KOREA=Cho Pil Hyun, Staff Reporter]

chop23@wikileaks-kr.org

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