Hyundai Motor Workers Give Up Vacation Time To Build Ordered Cars

July 26, 2002 Seoul -- Bloomberg News reported that Hyundai Motor Co. factory workers will give up part of their one-week summer vacation as South Korea's largest automaker tries to reduce an order backlog of more than 200,000 vehicles.

Hyundai Motor will run its plants for five evenings next week to produce about 10,000 additional Sonata, Grandeur XG, Santa Fe and other vehicles, the automaker said in a statement. The carmaker usually closes its local factories during the period.

Production was disrupted for three weeks last month when union members refused to work overtime and staged sporadic walkouts to demand higher wages. As a result, the carmaker struggled to meet demand, which has been spurred by government tax cuts.

"We are hoping that by working during the vacation period, more consumers will be able to benefit from the government's tax cuts on cars, which finish at the end of August," Hyundai Motor said in the statement.

Hyundai Motor sold 814,809 vehicles in the first six months, 1.3 percent more than a year earlier. Of that total, domestic sales rose 11 percent to 385,578 units.

The automaker lost about 550 billion won ($471 million) in sales last month, which is equivalent to about 43,000 cars, because of the labor disruptions.