Kakao union announces 4-hour partial strike for June 10

Kakao's union has announced a partial strike for June 10.

With management declaring the union's demands "difficult to bear," the union said Sunday it would stage a four-hour partial strike and a large-scale rally that day.

The two sides are set to enter final negotiations ahead of what would be the company's first-ever strike since its founding. Whether management and the union — which have remained far apart — can find common ground before a general strike becomes inevitable remains to be seen.

According to industry sources, Kakao's management and union will hold last-ditch negotiations this week to narrow their differences in wage talks. With the union having announced the four-hour partial strike for June 10, both sides regard this week as the final deadline for reaching a deal.

The union said Sunday it would proceed with a four-hour partial strike rather than an immediate full walkout, and warned it would escalate strike action depending on how negotiations unfold.

"The core demands of the Kakao chapter are clear," the union said. "We need to stop the selloffs, spinoffs and restructuring driven by repeated management failures, and secure job stability." The union also called for an overhaul of the executive compensation structure, saying management had monopolized outsized rewards even as its poor decisions created job insecurity for workers.

Alongside the partial strike, the union announced a large-scale rally on June 10, with a march from around Pangyo Station in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, to U-Space, running from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. About 1,200 people are expected to participate. Kakao's management, meanwhile, has made clear it cannot accept the union's performance compensation proposal and is exploring a firm response. After a second mediation attempt fell through, the company said in a statement that the total scale of the performance compensation the union demanded "would place a significant burden on company operations when measured against operating profit," adding that employee performance compensation "must be balanced and sustainable, taking into account future investment capacity and shareholder value."

Kakao CEO Jeong Shin-a also signaled in an internal notice that the company needed to "establish a stable framework at the corporate level, reset service-oriented standards, and align direction together," hinting at a partial organizational restructuring. Kakao nonetheless left the door open for a negotiated resolution, saying it would "keep the path of dialogue open until the very end and do its utmost to avoid any impact on shareholders, partners and other stakeholders."

Jeong added: "We have not yet narrowed our differences sufficiently, but we are ultimately crew who work together within Kakao and must move in the same direction. I will make every effort to listen more carefully to each other's voices, resolve our differences through dialogue, and come together again as one Kakao."

After a second mediation between Kakao's headquarters management and union collapsed on May 27, the unions at Kakao's headquarters as well as Kakao Enterprise, Kakao Pay, DK TechIn and XL Games secured the legal right to strike.

The central sticking point in the final negotiations is the performance bonus and long-term compensation structure. Management has proposed allocating 10 percent of last year's standalone operating profit along with restricted stock units worth 5 million won (approximately $3,330), while the union is said to be demanding a performance bonus equivalent to 13 to 14 percent of last year's standalone operating profit — which stood at 440.2 billion won — plus RSUs of around 5 million won on top of that.

If the partial strike escalates into a general strike, it would mark the first headquarters-level walkout in Kakao's more than 20-year history. While Kakao Mobility staged a partial strike in June last year, the parent company itself has never seen a strike.

Kakao said it would put in place the necessary contingency measures to prevent any disruption to its services in the event of a strike, and would make every effort to maintain stable service operations.