Unionized workers at Hyundai Motor Co., the country's largest automaker, on Wednesday began their vote on whether to launch a strike as their leaders have failed to narrow differences on raising wages and other benefits in previous negotiations with the management.

The outcome of the vote will be due early Thursday, the labor union with some 48,000 members said. If they vote to launch a strike, it would mark the fourth straight year that the automaker's workers walk off their jobs.

Hyundai Motor workers are demanding a 7.48 percent rise in their base salary in addition to heightened job security for regular and non-regular employees.

Hyundai Motor is struggling with falling demand at home and abroad in the face of increased competition from Chinese and other foreign rivals.

Separately, workers at Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. put down their tools at 1 p.m. for four hours, with employees at its two smaller local shipyards -- Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co. -- also joining the move.

Thursday's strike at Hyundai Heavy is the third such action since on Aug. 26.

South Korea is Asia's fourth-biggest economy and major enterprises here are bracing for a slump in domestic demand and overseas shipments.

Hyundai Heavy suffered a net loss of more than 200 billion won in the second quarter of the year, the seventh consecutive quarterly loss, as it set aside massive reserves against potential losses stemming from a delay in the construction of low-priced ships and money-losing offshore facilities.

Daewoo Shipbuilding also suffered a record loss of 2.39 trillion won in the April-June period, compared with a profit of 76 billion won a year earlier, the company said earlier. (Yonhap)