Samsung’s largest labor organization, the National Samsung Electronics Union, has announced plans to stage a strike next week as part of its fight for fair compensation. Members are threatening a one-day walkout on June 7 in hopes the company will listen to their demands after wage negotiations stalled in recent months. if pushed BNN Bloomberg says that this will be the first strike of the company’s employees since the founding of Samsung. whom Reuters Samsung has reportedly agreed to a 5.1 percent wage increase this year, but the union is also negotiating to add one more day to workers’ annual leave and more transparency when it comes to performance bonuses.
“We don’t want a 1-2 percent wage increase. We want fair pay for the amount of work done,” union leaders said outside Samsung’s offices in Seoul. We want to be compensated for our work in a fair and transparent manner.”
The National Samsung Electronics Union has 28,000 members, representing one-fifth of the company’s workforce. Union leaders don’t expect the strike to have a significant impact on Samsung’s production, since much of the manufacturing process is automated anyway, but they still hope their walkout could force the company to take them seriously. The union certainly has more power to negotiate now – apparently its membership quadrupled over the past few years after the company vowed to end its union-busting schemes.
Samsung used to be famous for its suppression of organized labor. In 2018, the chairman of the board was Lee Sang-hoon accused of provocation legal labor actions by threatening to lower wages for workers who join them, deliberately blocking negotiations between management and workers, and digging up dirt to convince key union workers to stop their activities. Lee He resigned as chairman Board member in 2020 Jay Y. Lee, Samsung’s Executive Chairman in the same year promised to bring it to an end the company’s union-busting practices.
However, the union said there has been “no change in management’s attitude” despite Lee’s promise to eliminate non-union management. “We can no longer tolerate the company’s lack of will to negotiate,” he said. The union plans to hold more demonstrations in the future if the company refuses to engage in meaningful negotiations. This was stated by the representative of Samsung BNN BloombergHowever, “the company remains committed to honest negotiations with the unions and is making every effort to reach an agreement.”
