Unionized workers of GM Korea are set to stage an eight-hour strike on Wednesday in protest over the automaker's plan to set up a separate research and development company. 

The GM Korea chapter of the Korean Metal Workers' Union said on Tuesday it has finalized strike plans, including a partial walkout. 

Under the plan, eleven-thousand workers will be divided into two groups, with one staging a four-hour strike from 11:40 a.m. and the other at 8:20 p.m. onward on Wednesday.

A union official said the strike will be enough to suspend operations at the automaker's factories in Bupyeong in Incheon and Changwon in South Gyeongsang Province. 

After months of resisting, Korea Development Bank reached an agreement with General Motors on Tuesday to spin off GM Korea's R&D division into an independent entity, GM Technical Center Korea. GM and the state-owned bank control 77 percent and 17 percent of GM Korea, respectively. 

GM Korea workers have strongly opposed the plan as they see it as a step by the automaker to scale down its production facilities in South Korea in the long term.