GM Daewoo union calls for work stoppage next week

SEOUL, July 4 (Reuters) - Unionised workers of GM Daewoo Automotive and Technology Co, a unit of General Motors (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), will walk off the job for two hours next week to push for a pay increase, the auto maker and its union said on Friday.

The stoppage will come less than a month after they downed tools for two hours over wage negotiations.

"If we failed to reach a satisfactory agreement from a wage negotiation on July 8 afternoon, we will step up the degree of our activity," a GM Daewoo union official said by telephone.

Daytime and night shift workers will each stop work for two hours on July 8.

The labour action follows similar moves this Wednesday by unionised employees at Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) and other South Korean car makers, excluding GM Daewoo, in a move aimed at having the government scrap a U.S. beef import deal.

Rallies against the unpopular beef deal, struck last month, have caused a crisis for President Lee Myung-bak's four-month-old government.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, an umbrella labour group comprising auto makers and metal workers, has been part of some of the most violent protests in the country and also called for a massive street protest for Saturday.

(Reporting by Kim Yeon-hee; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)