'Company must survive for jobs to exist': Labor-management cooperation earns presidential honors

When a deteriorating petrochemical market pushed one company to the brink, its union voluntarily froze wages. When a fire caused more than 10 billion won ($7.44 million) in damage at another, a labor and management team that had been at odds joined forces to rebuild the factory. Companies that chose concession and cooperation over confrontation have been named this year's recipients of the Labor-Management Culture Award.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced Thursday that it had selected 10 companies for the 2026 Labor-Management Culture Award. The presidential prize goes to Samyang Chemical's Jeonju factory and SK Trichem, while the prime minister's prize goes to the Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corporation (aT) and Hyorim Industrial. The awards ceremony will be held Dec. 23. Recipients receive benefits including exemption from regular labor inspections and preferential loan interest rates.

At Samyang Chemical's Jeonju factory, it was the union that first proposed cooperation when a glut of Chinese petrochemical products pushed the company into its worst crisis since its founding. Management offered a wage increase, but union members voted — with 80 percent in favor — to freeze wages instead. Labor and management then negotiated 58 agenda items covering wages, welfare and job security, and temporarily adjusted 14 welfare provisions. As a result, the company preserved all jobs without resorting to forced restructuring. This year, the company is also pursuing AI-based intelligent chemical process systems with the participation of skilled workers.

SK Trichem used a major fire as a turning point to transform a fractious labor-management relationship into a cooperative one. After the union was established in 2023, the company endured more than 20 in-house protests and repeated breakdowns in negotiations. But when a fire in July 2024 caused more than 10 billion won in damage, both sides joined hands to rebuild. What had been expected to take three months was completed in two, and the 2025 wage negotiation period shrank from 11 months to three. The company raised production workers' wages by 13 percent, and the union agreed to return to work during strikes if inventory fell below one month's supply. All employees kept their jobs after the fire.

The aT, which received the prime minister's prize, resolved a conflict between rival unions through dialogue and merged them into a single union in 2019. It also reached agreement on restructuring pay grades and narrowing wage gaps between job categories. Hyorim Industrial, operating under a dual-union structure representing both the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, directly hired 120 subcontract workers in May last year and protected jobs through reassignment rather than layoffs when production volumes fell.

Six companies received the minister of employment and labor prize: Dong-A Pharmaceutical's Cheonan factory, DHL Korea, Myeongjin Logistics, Samsung Bioepis, TIC and the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning. The companies were recognized for achievements including long-term strike-free labor relations, direct hiring of non-regular workers, extended retirement ages and improved working conditions.

Employment and Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon said the award recipients were "exemplary cases of overcoming hardship through dialogue and compromise rather than confrontation in the face of crisis," adding that the ministry would "actively support the spread of a mutually beneficial labor-management culture across all industries and the creation of workplaces where labor is respected."