HMM held a board meeting and approved an amendment to its articles of incorporation to transfer its headquarters to Busan. In response, the union said the board succumbed to government pressure and signaled it would launch hard-line action, including a general strike.
According to the shipping industry on the 30th, HMM at a board meeting held that morning at its headquarters in Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, resolved the agenda to amend the articles related to the headquarters transfer and the schedule to convene an extraordinary shareholders meeting. The shareholders meeting to amend the articles is set for May 8.
HMM's current articles specify the headquarters location as "Seoul Special City." To transfer the headquarters to Busan, the articles must be amended through a shareholders resolution.
The transfer of HMM's headquarters was a key campaign pledge that President Lee Jae-myung made during the presidential race. Lee pledged that as the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries was being moved from Sejong to Busan, the headquarters location of HMM, in which Korea Development Bank holds 35.42% equity, would be transferred as well.
Approval of the articles amendment came just four days after the board was formed. At a regular shareholders meeting on the 26th, outside directors Ahn Yang-su and Park Hee-jin were newly appointed, completing the lineup. They joined the board to replace outgoing outside directors whose terms had expired, including Woo Soo-han, a Chung-Ang University professor of international logistics, Jemma Lee, a Kyunghee University professor of international studies, and Jeong Yong-seok, a former Korea Development Bank vice president.
Within the HMM union, there was criticism that the newly appointed directors were a "rubber-stamp lineup" to carry out the government-driven headquarters transfer to Busan. This was because, while the previous directors had shown a negative stance on the headquarters transfer, many expected Park Hee-jin, a Busan National University professor, and Ahn Yang-su, formerly with Korea Development Bank, to be closer to supporting the transfer.
HMM's land-based union, in a statement released after the board resolution that day, said, "A board vote while labor-management talks are underway is a one-sided, ramming-through that capitulates to the government's undue pressure," adding, "We will begin procedures to secure the right to strike."