Subcontractor Killed in Fourth Incident at HD Hyundai Sites in 2026
A foreign subcontractor was crushed to death while working at the HD Hyundai shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea, on Saturday, July 18, making the fourth death at a company site this year. The incident comes as tensions are already high with its lead union over stalled contract negotiations.
The worker was a 26-year-old man from Uzbekistan who was conducting finishing work on an under-construction LNG carrier. The report said the man was on a lift (gondola) and was conducting grinding when he somehow became wedged between the gondola and scaffolding and was crushed. The worker was rushed to a hospital but died from his injuries.
The police and the Occupational Safety and Health Agency from the Ministry of Employment and Labor launched an immediate investigation. Reports said they also imposed a partial stop-work order on hull work while they investigate the position of the gondola, the internal structure on the ship, and the operation of safety devices.
The National Metal Union responded, accusing the yard of not taking strong enough steps to ensure safety and demanding an apology from the company’s CEO. It contends that the foreign subcontractors are being pressed to maintain a high work intensity, have insufficient safety training, and are pressured to increase their work speed. The union alleges that although there was an over-hoist prevention device to stop a worker from coming out of the gondola, it was unable to function properly because of the placement of the scaffolding.
Reports indicate another worker suffered a fatal fall nine days ago while conducting maintenance on an overhead crane at the former Hyundai Mipo site. Last month, a mooring line parted during a docking operation at the HD Hyundai Samho yard, killing a worker on the dock. In April, there was a fire on a submarine that killed a cleanup worker at the yard.
The union is calling for increased safety standards and more hiring to address the workload while it is also locked in stalled contract negotiations. Over the past month, management and the union have met 13 times and failed to come to an agreement on a new employment contract.
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The Korean JoongAng Daily reports the union is demanding an increase of approximately $100 a month in base pay as well as regular seniority-based raises and a bonus equal to 100 percent of monthly pay. Other demands are reported to include profit sharing for at least 30 percent of the operating profit distributed as performance-based compensation and a $1.3 million contribution toward recreation facilities.
Workers at the sister company, Hyundai Motors, announced that they were beginning a three-day (Monday through Wednesday) partial strike also over wages. They will stop work for four hours per shift on each of the three days. The union reports it will file for mediation against the shipbuilder while also moving forward with the formal strike procedures. No date has been announced for a possible strike.
