Shipyard unions in South Korea have intensified industrial action in the run-up to the Chuseok holiday, a The report dated 18 September 2026 said.
The report states that the Hanwha Ocean union, which has been on strike throughout September, has halted operations at some shipyard facilities and on 18 September stopped all of the yards' "Goliath cranes", described in the account as the core equipment of the shipyard.
Stopping all Goliath cranes removes the principal heavy‑lifting capability at affected yards, the report notes; that action follows a month-long strike that, the source says, has already interrupted work at a number of facilities.
The HD Hyundai Heavy Industries union, the report adds, had provided a statement the previous day, according to reports.
Equipment shutdown
The reported decision by the Hanwha Ocean union to immobilise every Goliath crane represents a targeted escalation of tactics focused on machinery central to ship assembly and module integration, the source records. By concentrating on the yards' largest lifting assets, the union's move, as described in the report, has the practical effect of undermining the ability to proceed with large-scale structural work at sites where operations were already suspended.
Timing and immediate context
The escalation comes as Chuseok approaches, the report says, with the timing underlining a heightened moment of pressure for employers and unions; the source dates its coverage to 18 September 2026. reports's account links the intensified action to the ongoing dispute and notes the sequence of statements from unions in the days immediately prior to the crane stoppage.
The material supplied does not record further detail of the HD Hyundai union's remarks nor the responses of company management or government authorities, and it gives no account of any negotiation outcomes or settlements at the time of the report. The available reporting confines itself to the unions' actions and to the timing of those actions in the days before Chuseok.
Taken together, the supplied report portrays an intensification of industrial action concentrated on core shipyard equipment and timed in the run-up to a major national holiday, with Hanwha Ocean's stoppage of all Goliath cranes on 18 September 2026 the principal development recorded by reports.