Hyundai and its union reach a wage deal after the first full-day strike in a decade

Hyundai Motor and its South Korean union reached a tentative wage agreement on Tuesday at the Ulsan plant, in a 17th round that ran overnight. The deal is meant to end a dispute that began on 6 May and produced the company’s first full-day strike in ten years.

Monthly base pay would rise by 100,000 won, about $72. The performance bonus is set at 400 percent of monthly salary, plus a one-off payment of 12.7 million won, about $9,180. Each worker would also receive 15 treasury shares. From next year through 2028 the company would hire 500 new technical workers a year. Union members vote on 31 August. If they approve, the 2026 wage round closes 111 days after it opened.

Industry estimates put the cost of the stoppages at about 55,200 vehicles and more than 2.3 trillion won in lost sales. The union logged 60 hours of strikes this year and about 120 hours of lost production across two shifts. Friday’s eight-hour stoppage was the step that forced the overnight session.

Retirement age and the robots

The union wanted the retirement age raised from 60 to 65. The compromise is that the company will apply any national law that lifts the age, and will keep regular wages through age 64 if that law passes. That formula avoids Hyundai setting a company-only precedent while still giving older line workers a path if the National Assembly moves.

Job security against automation was the other hard item. The union had watched Hyundai discuss humanoid Atlas robots on some assembly lines, with a possible first use in the United States from 2028. The tentative text says the two sides will talk about employment when new businesses and new tools are rolled out. It does not freeze robot deployment. It creates a mandatory conversation before the tools arrive on a Korean line.

Hyundai told reporters that management and the union both accepted that physical artificial intelligence and robotics are part of the next decade of car-making. That sentence is how the company wants the deal read in capital markets: the strike is over, and the robots are still coming. The union will read the same sentence as a foot in the door on staffing numbers.

What the vote decides

A no vote on 31 August puts the company back on a strike calendar heading into the autumn export season. A yes vote locks in the cash and the hiring floor and leaves the robot question for a later table. Shares in Hyundai Motor were roughly flat when the tentative deal hit the tape, while the wider Seoul market fell. Investors had already priced a settlement. They had not priced another full-day stoppage.

Ulsan is still Hyundai’s largest production complex. A short strike there shows up in waiting lists in the United States and Europe within weeks. The 55,200 vehicles already lost will not be recovered in the third quarter. The practical effect of a ratified deal is that the fourth quarter can be planned again.

The 4.1 percent base rise plus the 400 percent bonus is a large cash package by the company’s recent standards. It is also a reminder of the cost of running a full-day strike after ten quiet years. Other Korean manufacturers will take the numbers as a benchmark when their own rounds open.