Posted on 09 Jul 2024
The National Samsung Electronics Union, the largest worker union of South Korean electronics giant Samsung, started on Monday a three-day action over better pay and benefits.
This is the first-ever strike of the unionised workers, who are demanding higher pay and threatening further action if an agreement isn’t reached. Negotiations have been ongoing since January, and workers are disputing the 5.1% pay rise offered by the conglomerate. They are also calling for improved annual leave and performance-based bonuses.
“No pay, no work,” shouted workers in Hwaseong, southwest Seoul.
Son Woo-Mok, president of NSEU, said in a televised interview monitored by Kallanish that “the company has been consistently making all wage decisions unilaterally. It’s continuing with its anti-democratic practices. The employees can’t take it anymore.”
Though Samsung has yet to publicly address the strike and speculation over potential impacts on production, Nikkei Asia said the company reported “no impact on its business.” NSEU, however, suggests Samsung’s semiconductor production will be affected.
“Semiconductor lines are much more vulnerable than [the management] expected to a strike,” NSEU vice-president Lee Hyun-Kook said during the rally. “We all know that it does not work if just one shift is absent. It directly affects production. How could the management not understand this when we said we would go on strike?”
NSEU workers, who account for around 25% of Samsung’s workforce, reportedly intend to put pressure on the company by disrupting production at one of its most advanced chip facilities. The strike comes at a critical time, as Samsung is said to be trying to convince major clients such as Nvidia to use its high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to take a bigger scoop in the artificial intelligence market, according to media reports.
Billy Leung, investment strategist at Global X Australia, said earlier this year that the timing of the strike is particularly critical “as it coincides with ongoing semiconductor supply chain challenges… Any disruption in Samsung’s operations could have a ripple effect.”
He adds that Samsung will hold a share of about 20% of the global DRAM market and a share of up to 40% in the NAND flash memory market in 2035.
Samsung didn’t immediately respond to Kallanish’s request for comment.
Source:Kallanish
