Hyundai Not Worried By The UAW
The United Auto Workers is trying to hold its first successful organizing drive at the foreign-car Hyundai factory in the U.S. Standing in its way are rising sales and added investments at Hyundai's Alabama complex and other sites. Hyundai was one of the very few automakers to manage a sales increase in 2009 and now sales are up again by nearly half from the year before. While Hyundai officials declined to speak about specific pay, workers said the hourly rate is generous for the area.
Hyundai isn't worried about a "Buy American" backlash in the wake of the its progress. Hyundai's three best sellers now make up more than half of Hyundai's U.S. sales. Once all three models are produced in the United States, Hyundai executives expect that a significant majority of Hyundai's sales in this country will be of American-made cars.