POSCO's labor union began a second partial strike lasting 120 hours at 7 a.m. on the 16th, even as internal discord deepened after some union officials at the Pohang and Gwangyang plants said they would resign from the leadership over a golf outing between the union chairman and management. It is the first strike at POSCO, the main operating unit of POSCO Group (POSCO Holdings, 005490.KS), since the company was founded in 1968.
Thirteen union officials said in a statement the same day that they would see the walkout through but step down afterward. "The second partial strike is a struggle we promised our members, so we will stay with it to the end, but we will resign from the leadership on the 21st, when the 120-hour partial strike ends," they said.
They cited an inappropriate relationship between the union chairman and management as the reason. "A labor union must reject any attempt by the company to control it and must be run independently, without entering into any inappropriate relationship," they said. "Yet a few days before declaring a breakdown in negotiations last July, the chairman played golf with a company official, and the chairman himself has admitted it." They added, "The chairman and the leadership should stop putting off an answer on the grounds that a strike is under way, and state their position clearly."
The union's second partial strike runs from 7 a.m. on the 16th to 7 a.m. on the 21st. It covers the No. 2 hot rolling mill in the hot rolling department at the Pohang works and the No. 4 hot rolling mill in the hot rolling department at the Gwangyang works. Workers who operate and maintain the reheating furnaces are excluded.
Earlier, from the 9th to the 11th, the union staged a 48-hour walkout targeting the 3ZRM line at the No. 2 electrical steel sheet plant in Pohang and the pickling plant in Gwangyang, the first partial strike on a production line in the company's 58-year history. This time the union stretched the walkout from 48 hours to 120 hours, a 2.5-fold increase, and widened it to major hot rolling mills.
Labor action could escalate further if talks make no progress. Guidance has already been issued that the union may add more worksites to the second partial strike from the 18th.
