Partial walkouts at Kia Motors Corp. and South Korea’s largest carmaker, Hyundai Motor Co., were the centerpiece of a one-day strike by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions to protest U.S. beef imports and the pro-business policies of President Lee Myung-bak. U.S. beef returned to South Korean store shelves Tuesday under a new import agreement.
About 20,000 workers at Kia Motors Corp. stopped work for two hours, union officials said. Some 13,000 other Kia workers on the night shift and about 45,000 union members at Hyundai Motor Co. planned to do the same later in the day.