Two trade unions at OB Beer, one affiliated to the FKTU chemical union federation and another affiliated to the KCTU chemical and textile industrial union, decided to suspend their industrial action temporarily, since the management asked for a period of ten working days to consult with the global management of AB InBev, the largest multinational beer brewer in the world.
Unionized workers of OB Beer(Oriental Brewery Company) at three plant locations(Icheon, Cheongju and Kwangju) decided to join forces for a sit-in strike from August 16 in full scale.
Strikes spread out wild, as workers of outsourced firms such as freight drivers and fork-lift operators began to join the strike.
Unions demanded 5% of base wage, 3 million won(US$2,660) lump sum for profit-sharing and the improvement of performance pay system. Unions also pointed out the emotional collision between workers and management since AB InBev took over the OB Beer in 2014 which did harm for the establishment of harmonious industrial relations at work.
For the freight drivers who joined the strike, the freight drivers solidarity union and CJ Korea Express agreed 5.7% increase of delivery service charge, solution of discriminate truck operation allocation against unionized drivers, withdrawal of all civil and criminal lawsuits caused by the strike, and guarantee of union activities.
It is known that the burden of delivery service charge increase for freight drivers is shared by CJ Korea Express and OB Beer.