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[Yonhapnews File Photo]
Workers at Gwangju Global Motors (GGM), who have been in conflict with management due to the breakdown of wage and collective bargaining negotiations, are suspending their 211-day tent sit-in protest and moving toward intensive negotiations.
According to the Gwangju-Jeollanam-do chapter of the National Metal Workers' Union on the 21st, the GGM branch will dismantle the tent for the sit-in protest in front of Gwangju City Hall at 10 a.m. on the 22nd and then hold intensive negotiations with management.
The union explained that it made this decision after trusting the intention expressed by Min Hyung-bae, the elected governor of the integrated Jeollanam-do and Gwangju Special City, and the Jeollanam-do and Gwangju Great Transition Planning Committee, which is serving as the transition committee, to mediate the conflict between labor and management.
With the mediation of the committee, labor and management have agreed to hold intensive negotiations with the goal of reaching a collective bargaining agreement by the end of July.
The union will dismantle the tent protest site that has been set up for 211 days as it requested Gwangju City's mediation, and will hold a press conference on the 22nd attended by Yun Nan-sil, chairman of the Civil Sovereignty Committee, GGM management, and others.
Kwon Oh-san, director of the Labor Safety and Health Department of the Metal Workers' Union, said, "The intensive negotiations between labor and management and the dismantling of the protest site will be a starting point for guaranteeing union activities," and "Given that 2024 negotiations have been delayed for over two years, we will work to ensure that negotiations can be concluded by the end of July."
The GGM union has been in conflict with management since January 2025, when collective labor agreement negotiations broke down, conducting 4-hour partial strikes, and has continued tent sit-in protests in front of Gwangju City Hall since last November.
daum@yna.co.kr
