POSCO Group’s labor and management are at odds as the nation’s fifth-largest business group prepares to restructure unprofitable and non-core assets to secure cash for shareholder returns and investments in its core businesses.
On Tuesday, a group of unionized workers at POSCO Group’s five affiliates issued a statement expressing their concerns over the management’s plan to reform 120 non-core assets.
This came a day after POSCO Future M, the group’s battery materials unit, decided to sell its 51 percent stake in P&O Chemical to OCI, a polysilicon maker that owns the remaining 49 percent of the joint venture.
“The restructuring plan announced on July 15 has been causing concerns over workforce reduction and job insecurity following the introduction of artificial intelligence and automation technologies,” said the unions of POSCO, POSCO DX, SNNC, POSCO M-Tech and POSCO Mobility Solution, which are under the Federation of Korean Trade Unions.
“Although we understand the need to focus on core businesses and improve profitability, there is the risk of low morale and anxiety deteriorating productivity.”
Last month, POSCO Group announced that it would restructure its 120 unprofitable and non-core assets, which are not important for the group’s business strategies.
The business group said at that time that it would secure 2.6 trillion won ($2 billion) in cash by 2026 for shareholder returns and investments in its core businesses.
The plan is believed to primarily enable the group’s steelmaking unit to raise substantial funds to implement hydrogen reduction ironmaking 스포츠 technology across all of its furnaces by 2050, aiming for carbon neutrality.
The unions emphasized that POSCO Group’s workers have always gone all out to rescue their company from crises, pointing out the restoration of the steelmaker’s main steel mill in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, after Typhoon Hinnamnor flooded the factory in 2022.
“The voices of workers must be heard during the ongoing restructuring,” the unions said.