Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering is suffering a conflict between labor and management over speculative news that the company may be sold over to a Russian owner.

Though the government denied the scenario, concerns persist that the deal may strike a blow to Korea’s national defense as the company is an unrivaled leader in the military ship market.

“We oppose the disposal of the company to a foreign unit, which may cause employment insecurity and a shipbuilding technology leak,” said the DSME labor union through a statement on Wednesday.

The union held a survey earlier in the week, in which 92.7 percent of the respondents voted against a foreign nationality new owner, officials said.

“The government recently asserted that the rumored sales would not take place, but it has so far failed to suggest detailed plans to support that,” it said.

The unionized workers also demanded that the company refrain from a package deal of its stocks and to make sure that some of the executive members participate in the disposal discussion process.

The surging concerns came in response to the prevalent rumor that Rosneft, Russia’s state-run oil company and the world’s largest listed oil producer, is eyeing the Korean shipbuilding champion.

Natalia Burykina, chairperson of Russia’s State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, further boosted such speculations late last month by saying that the governments of the two countries were “discussing” the acquirement possibility.

But the Korean government denied the plan, citing the fact that DSME is currently the country’s leading builder of military ships.

The Korea Development Bank, which holds 31.5 percent of the company’s stocks, also denied having received any official purchase offer from the Russian company or any other foreign units.

Due to the negative stance over the Russian purchase, DSME is likely to remain without an owner for a while as no domestic conglomerates have taken an interest in the large-scale deal.

Despite the ongoing dilemma over new ownership and the resulting labor-management conflict, DSME met its yearly target of $13 billion after sealing a $540 million container ship deal, according to officials on Tuesday.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)