GM Korea Resumes Wage Talks

General Motors Co.’s South Korean unit is scheduled to relaunch wage negotiations today with its labor union there in a bid to keep the operations alive.

The talks were suspended in mid-February after GM announced it will close one of its four factories in Korea in May. The company warned at the time it also would decide the fate of the remaining plants within the next several weeks.

GM says labor concessions and government aid are needed to relaunch the Korean unit as a viable business. The unit has lost 3 trillion won ($2.8 billion) over the past four years.

Korea had been GM’s global hub for small-car production a decade ago. But production has dropped, and wages have climbed, since the company’s Chevrolet brand exited the European market in 2014.

GM warned earlier that it wants to see significant progress toward a solution by the end of February, implying it might otherwise shut down its Korean manufacturing operations. The company has already done just that in Russia in 2015 and in India (except cars for export) last year to stem losses. In August GM also sold its money-losing Adam Opel unit to PSA Group as part of its focus on more profitable markets.