ULSAN, South Korea, June 11 (Reuters) – A huge factory complex Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS) added weekend production on Saturday, despite a nationwide strike by truckers hitting ports and other South Korean industrial giants, including steelmaker POSCO (005490.KS).

On the fifth day of the strike, around 100 union truckers, about a tenth of Friday’s show of force, gathered at the main gate of the Hyundai factory in the southern city of Ulsan, protesting the surge in fuel prices and demanding higher freight rates to cover costs.

Around 800 striking trade unionists were gathering at the gates of a nearby major petrochemical complex in Ulsan. They had reduced the number of vehicles to a tenth of normal levels on Friday, according to union officials.

South Korea is a major supplier of semiconductors, smartphones, automobiles, batteries and electronic products. The strike has added uncertainty to global supply chains already disrupted by China’s tough COVID-19 restrictions and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Department of Transport said on Saturday it planned to meet union representatives to continue talks aimed at ending the strike and called on union members to return to work immediately.

At the country’s main seaport in Busan, tension mounted as union members hurled insults at non-union drivers entering through the main gate and at police on site to ensure vehicles passed through the gate, according to a Reuters witness.

Busan handles around 80% of the country’s container traffic, which had fallen to a third of normal levels on Friday, a government official said.

Some of the hundreds of strikers threw rocks and water bottles at moving vehicles and a union leader urged members to stand up even at the risk of arrest.

“Do you want to check the police station?” he yelled into a megaphone, to a loud “Yes!” members.

“What has (President) Yoon done for us?” he said in reference to conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol who took office a month ago after a campaign promoting a business-friendly economic agenda.

Facing one of his first big economic challenges, Yoon took what he calls a neutral stance, saying the government shouldn’t interfere in a deal between truckers and the companies that contract with them. Read more

Truckers’ Union Busan branch chief Song Cheon-seok said Reuters members were ready to up the ante to press their demands.

Song reiterated union policy that he will not block non-union trucks from passing. It mainly targets vehicles transporting chips, auto parts, petrochemicals and fresh food, he said.

Around 7,350 truckers, or a third of the 22,000 members of the Cargo Truckers Solidarity union, were due to strike on Saturday, the transport ministry said. She estimates that about 6% of the country’s 420,000 truckers are unionized.

The union says more truckers were on strike and many non-union truckers are also choosing not to work.

A Hyundai Motor union official said production at Ulsan plants increased slightly on Friday and the plant was operating at around 60% of overall capacity, slightly higher than Thursday’s 50% to 60% level.

Hyundai declined to comment on the status of its operations or the delivery of finished cars.

“There are disruptions in our production due to the truckers’ strike, and we expect production to be normalized as soon as possible,” a Hyundai spokesperson said.

The union official said Saturday’s plant operation had not been scheduled due to worsening parts supply problems, but the company was moving forward, likely to face growing back orders.

Hyundai workers began driving finished cars out of the factory complex and parking them outside as they could not be delivered to customers due to the strike, he said.

Reporting by Byungwook Kim in Ulsan and Heekyong Yang in Seoul; Written by Jack Kim; Editing by William Mallard & Shri Navaratnam

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