Hyundai Motors and its four employees were indicted by the prosecution on the charge of their involvement in the case of union busting which took place at Yoosung Enterprise, one of Hyundai Motors' auto parts suppliers in 2011. It is the first case in Korea that a client company is prosecuted for its controlling influence on the labor relations at the supplier companies.

In May 2011, when the trade union at Yoosung Enterprise went on strike after the failure of the collective negotiation with the management regarding the work shift system, the management responded with the lockout and dismissed 27 union members allegedly with the help of a consulting firm and Hyundai Motors. Instead of putting efforts on the normalization of labor management relations, the management supported to form a second trade union to weaken the first union.

Attention is growing on the possible investigation into other similar cases of union busting which took place at Sangsin Brake, Valeo and Continental Automotive in the past. These manufacturing companies are also supplying auto parts to Hyundai Motors.

reported by Je Jeong-nam
translated by Kim Sung-jin