SEOUL, July 10 — A workers’ union at tech giant Samsung Electronics in South Korea said today it will strike indefinitely, stepping up its campaign for better pay and benefits.
The National Samsung Electronics Union, whose roughly 30,000 members make up almost a quarter of the firm’s South Korean workforce, said it decided to continue striking as management has shown no indication of holding talks after the protest, which started Monday.
“We haven’t spoken to management since we started the strike on Monday,” said Lee Hyun-kuk, the union’s vice-president.
The union said it will extend the strike, which was initially planned to last three days until today. Lee told Reuters the strike has disrupted production on certain chip lines, such as with equipment running more slowly.
Samsung said the strike had caused no disruption in the first three days.
“Samsung Electronics will ensure no disruptions occur in the production lines. The company remains committed to engaging in good faith negotiations with the union,” the company said in a statement.
The union is becoming more vocal and seeking to be treated as an equal partner, adding to challenges at the world’s biggest memory chipmaker, which is struggling to navigate competition in chips used for artificial intelligence applications.
Lee said about 6,500 workers have been participating in the strike and that the union will encourage more members to join.
Union officials have disputed reports of low participation, telling Reuters the five-year-old body has not had enough time to educate members about labour issues. The union held a training session yesterday and will conduct another today.
Analysts said it will be difficult to verify whether the strike has disrupted production unless the union provides details of wafers and processes.
The union said it has revised demands to include a 3.5 per cent increase in base salary and, instead of an extra day’s annual leave, a day off to mark the union’s founding. Lee said the management previously offered a 3 per cent rise in base salary, but the union wants 3.5 per cent to better reflect inflation.
Samsung’s share price was down 0.3 per cent while the benchmark Kospi index was little changed as at 0423 GMT.
— Reuters
