CAUGHT BY BBC.COM
As part of its fight for more compensation and benefits, a union that represents employees at South Korean technology behemoth Samsung Electronics has called on its nearly 30,000 members to go on strike indefinitely.
The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) was holding a three-day national strike when the announcement was made.
The union said that it made this choice because management had not indicated that it would engage in negotiations over its requests.
The NSEU, which in South Korea represents almost 25% of Samsung Electronics employees, said that its protests had hampered production. Samsung refutes these assertions.
“Samsung Electronics will ensure no disruptions occur in the production lines. The company remains committed to engaging in good faith negotiations with the union,” However, the labor group stated: “The company has no intention to engage in a dialogue even after the first general strike, thus, we declare a second general strike starting on July 10th, lasting indefinitely.”
Approximately 6,500 workers have participated in the walkout thus far, according to the NSEU, which is urging more of its members to join the work stoppage.
Regarding the number of employees who had joined the strike, a Samsung Electronics representative declined to say.
Approximately 3,000 individuals showed up for a demonstration on Monday.
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The union conducted the first walkout at the business since it was established 55 years ago last month. The biggest manufacturer of memory chips, cellphones, and televisions worldwide is Samsung Electronics. It is the flagship division of the Samsung Group, a South Korean corporation. The company is also the largest of the family-run companies that control the economy of Asia’s fourth-largest country.
It was well known that Samsung Group did not let unions represent its employees until 2020 when the business came under heavy public scrutiny following the prosecution of its chairman for bribery and market manipulation.
The company’s shares were trading on the Korea Stock Exchange flat to slightly lower following the NSEU statement.
Last week, Samsung Electronics said it expects its profits for the three months to June 2024 to jump 15-fold compared to the same period last year.
A boom in artificial intelligence (AI) technology has lifted the prices of advanced chips, driving up the firm’s forecast for the second quarter.
