HONG KONG—Workers at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., the world’s third-largest shipyard, voted to strike in protest against Korea Development Bank’s plan to sell a stake this year.

About 93 percent of the 6,503 workers voted in favor of a strike, the union said on its web site. Details of the labor action will be decided later, the union said in the statement.

State-controlled Korea Development Bank aims to pick a preferred bidder for Daewoo Shipbuilding as early as August as the lender prepares for privatization amid president Lee Myung Bak’s plan for deregulation and sale of state assets. The sale of the 50.4-percent stake held by Korea Development Bank and Korea Asset Management Corp., valued at 4.14 trillion won ($4.2 billion), would be the biggest in the shipbuilding industry.

Shipyard workers have demanded the stake should not be sold in a single block and that the union should be consulted before a buyer is chosen.

The union is interested in buying the 19.1-percent stake owned by Korea Asset. Korea Development Bank holds 31.3 percent.

Seoul-based Daewoo Shipbuilding signed $1.9 billion worth of contracts this year and holds an order backlog worth about $38 billion that represents almost four years of work.

Daewoo Shipbuilding shares dropped 1.9 percent to close at 43,050 won before the announcement. The stock advanced 21 percent in the past year, outpacing an 18-percent climb in South Korea’s Kospi index. (Bloomberg)

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HONG KONG—Workers at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., the world’s third-largest shipyard, voted to strike in protest against Korea Development Bank’s plan to sell a stake this year.