In a renewed sign of labor trouble at Hyundai Motor, the largest South Korean carmaker, riot police cordoned off its headquarters here Wednesday as workers threatened to go on strike for a 13th consecutive year unless the strife-torn company paid them an extra bonus. The unrest highlighted the chronic predicament faced by Hyundai: South Korea's most militant labor union, which is determined to go on strike at a time Hyundai is grappling with high oil prices, the rising value of the Korean won, and strike-free Japanese competitors to join the ranks of the world's top auto companies.
See "Workers protest at Hyundai", Choe Sang-Hun, International Herald Tribune, January 9, 2007