Unionists at Hyundai Motor Co. decided Monday to go on a partial strike this week after negotiations with the management stalled on wage hikes and welfare benefits.

Union leaders said there will be a four-hour strike on Tuesday and Wednesday. The workers will return in full on Thursday when labor-management negotiations are scheduled. Unionists will decide

what to do depending on how the negotiation round proceeds, the leaders said.

Over 70 percent of the unionists at Hyundai Motor, the country's largest automaker, and its sister company Kia Motors Corp. voted last week in favor of a strike. The mandatory mediation period ended Monday, after which the workers can walk out legally.

The union is asking for a 130,498 won (approximately US$118) pay raise, 50 percent more in bonuses from the current 750 percent a year, the progressive accumulation of retirement pensions, plus 10 million won each for workers' children who choose to seek employment instead of going to college. It is also demanding the extension of the retirement age to 61.

"We have come to take steps toward a strike because the management has not given us its proposals on our demands," said Kwon Oh-il, the spokesman for the Hyundai union.

The company president, Yoon Gap-han, appealed to the unionists to find a solution beneficial to both sides, calling a strike "an extreme action" that "is of no help to the workers."

Hyundai's workers have walked out every year since they unionized in 1987, except for in 1994 and for three consecutive years between 2009 and 2011.

Last year, the workers staged a 13-day strike that cost the carmaker some 1.7 trillion won from idled production.

(Yonhap News)