UAW rallies for Hyundai strikers in Korea

About 150 UAW officials and workers protested this afternoon outside the Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center in Superior Township and told the tech center’s manager that Hyundai officials should respond to the demands of striking temporary subcontract workers in South Korea.

Workers at Hyundai’s plant in Ulsan have held a sit-in strike since Nov. 15, demanding to be made permanent employees. The strike had prevented the manufacturing of nearly 24,000 cars as of Dec. 4, according to a Bloomberg News report out of Korea. Half-strength production started briefly today, despite the striking workers, but they later disrupted production again, Bloomberg said.

Hyundai’s U.S. operations have declined to comment on the reports.

UAW President Bob King told the Free Press the union’s support for the temporary Korean workers kicked off the emphasis on global justice he had promised since his election this summer.

In addition to UAW members and officials, two striking members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra also gathered on the sidewalk outside the tech center, carrying photos that showed injured Koreans and holding signs with messages such as, “Justice for striking Hyundai workers.”

“Bosses around the world, even at tremendously profitable corporations like Hyundai, are trying to reduce the number of permanent workers and expand the number of temporary workers, weakening the middle class,” King told the crowd. “We want permanent, middle-class standard of living jobs for every person working in the world.”

King, Vice President Cindy Estrada, Gerald Kariem, director of Region 1D in western Michigan, and Norwood Jewell, director of Region 1C out of Flint, brought a bouquet of flowers to the tech center to deliver a message of support for the workers.

The striking workers were employed by a subcontrator when Hyundai switched to another subcontrator, which offered the workers temporary jobs that they refused. The UAW said the new subcontrator had demanded the workers withdraw their union membership.

King said he is leading a delegation to Korea Friday to meet with officials from the Korean Metal Workers’ Union.

King has talked of reviving the union's efforts to try to organize workers at foreign automakers' U.S. plants. He plans to try to get automakers to agree to a set of principles for union votes, an idea espoused by the UAW's new consultant, famed organizer Richard Bensinger, who attended the protest at Hyundai.

King told the Free Press the UAW's board was meeting Tuesday to review the principles and will likely unveil them at the start of 2011. He said Bensinger has contributed to all of the union's recent strategizing related to organizing and global justice.

"Richard's the best organizer and the best strategic mind for organizing that I know in the United States," King said. "We wanted the best for our union."

Bensinger's relationship with the UAW was first reported by the Free Press.

The UAW's total membership sank to 355,191 in 2009, down from a high of around 1.5 million workers in the 1970s, making it critical for the union to organize more workers.

Contact Chrissie Thompson: 313-222-8784 or cthompson@freepress.com.