Kia Motors unionists set to hold vote on strike this week

Unionized workers at Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-largest carmaker, will hold a vote this week to decide whether to go on strike after their leaders failed to hammer out a deal with the management over working conditions, labor officials said Tuesday.

Kia Motors' labor union will have a yes-or-no vote, asking around 34,000 members whether to go on strike, the officials said.

The vote will be held Wednesday afternoon.

The labor and management have failed to produce a breakthrough in their negotiations, which led the former to declare a breakup in talks last week and decide to ask its members to lay down their tools in protest.

A strike would represent the fourth consecutive year of labor disputes at the automaker. LLabor reportedly is demanding a 159,900 won ($135) hike in each worker's base salary.

A Kia Motors official said that the company will have "sincere" negotiations with the labor and work hard to finalize talks "as quickly as possible."

Last week, unionized workers at Hyundai Motor Co, an affiliate of Kia Motors, voted in favor of a strike after they failed to iron out differences with the management over a wage hike and other working conditions. In a yes-or-no vote, 77.9 percent of its 48,000 unionists gave the green light to their leaders to stage a strike.

The labor dispute came as Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, the country's two largest carmakers, are struggling to meet their annual sales target for this year in the face of tough market conditions at home and abroad. Sales have been falling in the face of fierce competition and the overall downturn in emerging markets.

According to their latest data, the combined sales of the two carmakers during the first eight months of this year came to 5,102,649 units, a 3 percent decline from the previous year's 5,262,741 units. (Yonhap)

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