President Lee Myung-bak criticized auto and bank union members planning to go on strike, saying Thursday that it is not desirable for such high-earning people to walk away from their jobs amid global economic difficulties.

“I think South Korea is the only nation where high-income unions go on strike,” Lee said during an economic policy meeting.

“It is not desirable for high-income unions to go on strike when we are trying to resolve the difficult task the entire world faces. Those in real difficulties can’t even afford to strike.”

Union members at Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. staged a four-hour walkout earlier this month and plan to do so again Friday to press management to accept their annual collective negotiation demands for higher wages and better working conditions.

Bank workers belonging to the Korea Financial Industry Union also plan to go on strike late this month to call for a pay raise and to protest the government’s plan to privatize Woori Finance Holdings Co., South Korea’s top financial services company.

Union members at Hyundai and Kia have often come under public fire when they go on strike as they are considered among the best-paid blue-collar workers in South Korea, with critics calling them “aristocratic unions.” (Yonhap News)