A workers’ union at Samsung Electronics in South Korea has called for a strike from July 8 to 10, as per union official on Tuesday. This is as the Samsung union steps up the industrial action against the country’s most valuable company. As per the union representing tens of thousands of workers at South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics on Tuesday it would hold a three-day strike later this month after negotiations failed.
Son Woo-mok, leader of the union, said late on Monday that the South Korea labor strike is for wanting a more transparent system for bonuses and time off. Also the workers wants the company to treat it as an equal partner.
Samsung declined to comment on the union’s strike plan.
Samsung workers strike
Union membership increased rapidly after Samsung in 2020 pledged to stop discouraging the growth of organized labor.
The Samsung workers strike itself is unlikely to have a major impact on chip output as most production at the world’s biggest memory chipmaker is automated.
South Korea’s labor strikes impact on production
Any impact on production will ultimately depend on how many people that operate chip plants participate and for how long, said senior researcher Kim Yang-Paeng at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade.
“Chip production cannot proceed with replacement workers” if people who operate the automated machines walked out for a long time “because of the specificity and expertise of the work,” Kim said.
Earlier Samsung union’s protest
Last month, workers en masse took annual leave on the same day in what was effectively the union’s first industrial action. At the time, Samsung said there was no impact on production or business activity. Those striking were mainly employed at inner-city offices rather than at manufacturing sites, analysts said.
“This planned strike marks a turning point in Samsung’s history of non-union management. This could be seen as a drop in employee loyalty at Samsung … caused by wages and disappointing compensation compared to Samsung’s rivals,” a Seoul-based analyst said on Tuesday, declining to be identified as details of the strike were unknown.
Samsung stock update
Samsung’s share price was unaffected, rising 0.1% in morning trade versus a 0.7% decline in the benchmark price index.
