POSCO labor and management, which are facing their first strike since the company was founded, will return to the bargaining table after 12 days. The meeting was proposed by management. With the union having announced a second partial strike of 120 hours targeting the hot-rolling mills, known as the "backbone of steel production," starting on the 16th, this round of talks is expected to determine whether the strike widens.
According to the steel industry on the 14th, POSCO labor and management will resume wage and collective bargaining talks at 2 p.m. on the 15th at POSCO's headquarters in Pohang, North Gyeongsang. It will be the first formal bargaining in 12 days since the 3rd. Management is understood to have proposed talks to the union at around 4 p.m. that day. The meeting comes just one day before the union's second partial strike.
The Korea Metal Workers' Federation POSCO Labor Union Strike Countermeasures Committee issued "Strike Countermeasures Directive No. 9" that day, saying it would stage a second partial strike for 120 hours from 7 a.m. on the 16th to 7 a.m. on the 21st.
In particular, this time the strike target has expanded to major hot-rolling production lines. Operators and maintenance staff, along with union members assigned to 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, will stop work. However, personnel operating and maintaining reheating furnaces are excluded.
Hot rolling is the backbone of a steelworks' production process. It is the process of heating slabs produced through steelmaking and continuous casting, then rolling them thin to produce hot-rolled coils. Hot-rolled products produced here are sold as finished goods, but they also serve as feedstock for subsequent processes such as cold rolling and galvanizing. If the strike drags on and actually disrupts hot-rolling output, subsequent processes will also be affected.
This is a tougher measure than the first partial strike that ran for 48 hours starting on the 9th. At that time, the targets were the 3ZRM at the No. 2 electrical steel sheet plant at the Pohang Works and the pickling plant at the Gwangyang Works. The strike duration will also increase 2.5 times, from 48 hours to 120 hours.
The union has left open the possibility of widening the strike scope further depending on the talks. According to the strike committee, the union has issued guidance that, depending on the company's response and the progress of bargaining, it may add more establishments to the second partial strike starting on the 18th.
The core sticking points between labor and management remain wages and compensation. The union is demanding a 7.1% increase in base pay, a 600% encouragement bonus, 50 employee stock ownership shares, and a 200% holiday bonus. Management, by contrast, has offered a 2.0% increase in base pay and a lump-sum package worth 4 million won, including a 3.5 million won goal-achievement encouragement payment and 500,000 won in local love gift certificates. Expanded long-service congratulations payments and improved criteria for housing loan support were also included in the additional proposal.
Earlier, the two sides failed to narrow their differences in talks on the 3rd. The union then launched a 48-hour partial strike starting at 7 a.m. on the 9th, the first to target an actual production line since the company's founding. Management's position is that there was no significant disruption to actual production during the first strike by mobilizing available personnel and operating key processes covered by essential services as normal. However, since the second strike will last five days and target major hot-rolling lines, tensions on the production floor are expected to vary significantly depending on the outcome of the talks on the 15th.