With a partial strike for the first time in six years a day away, Kia labor and management, following Hyundai Motor labor and management, have drawn up a tentative agreement on the 2026 wage and collective agreement. If union members approve it in a vote on the 28th, this year's wage negotiations will be concluded.
According to the Kia union on the 25th, Kia labor and management produced a tentative agreement at the 2026 wage and collective bargaining session held that day. The deal includes a 100,000 won increase in the monthly base wage; performance and incentive pay of 400% plus 12.7 million won (200,000 won in traditional market gift certificates converted to cash); 47 shares; and 500,000 won in welfare points.
Along with this, Kia labor and management also signed the "agreement on employment stability through major accident prevention and strengthening future competitiveness." The agreement includes establishing a safety culture to prevent major accidents and joint labor-management responses for future industrial transitions, as well as measures to strengthen competitiveness and stabilize employment.
With this tentative agreement, this year's wage and collective bargaining across Hyundai Motor Group, which has continued since May, is expected to wrap up. Early that morning, Hyundai Motor labor and management produced a tentative agreement after 111 days of tug-of-war since the May kickoff meeting.
During the process, multiple rounds of talks collapsed, leading to a cumulative 60 hours of strikes. Kia, having failed to find common ground with management in earlier talks, convened a strike countermeasures committee on the 21st and finalized a strike tactic that, if negotiations broke down, would launch partial strikes by work shift for three days from the 26th to the 28th.
With this agreement, Kia has opened a path to avoid the production disruptions that had been imminent. If the union proceeded with the partial strike as planned, it could have affected not only production volume but also the delivery schedule for finished vehicles and production at parts suppliers. In particular, with expanded sales needed in the second half, production disruptions from a strike could have weighed on Kia's results.
The union will hold a vote of union members on the tentative agreement on the 28th. The vote will run from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. with the first and second shifts voting simultaneously, and absentee voting will be held on the 27th. The tentative agreement must be approved in the union vote for this year's wage and collective bargaining to be finalized.