(LEAD) Deal reached to end Daewoo shipyard strike

▲ Workers of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. watch police move around striking subcontract workers at the company's Okpo shipyard on Geoje Island, southeastern South Korea, on July 22, 2022. (Yonhap)

(LEAD) shipyard strike-talks

(LEAD) Deal reached to end Daewoo shipyard strike

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with agreement; CHANGES headline, slug)

GEOJE, South Korea, July 22 (Yonhap) -- Subcontract workers at the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) shipyard on the southeastern coast agreed to end their 51-day strike Friday, after labor and management struck a last-minute agreement on the remaining contentious issues.

About 120 unionized workers from DSME subcontractors had occupied an oil tanker under construction at a dock of the global shipbuilder's Okpo shipyard on Geoje Island, about 470 kilometers southeast of Seoul, since June 2, demanding a 30 percent wage hike, and improved working and employment conditions.

The striking workers and their employers reached an agreement on a wage hike earlier this week but had reportedly differed on other contentious issues, including the withdrawal of a damages suit against strikers and the employment succession of some subcontract workers.

The labor-management agreement came just before the shipyard begins its two-week summer holiday this weekend and the government takes steps to use police force to break up the protracted sit-in, which has dealt a heavy blow to the world's fourth-largest shipyard.

(END)

(C) Yonhap News Agency. All Rights Reserved