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On the call of a labor union with tens of thousands of members on board, strike for the first time at Samsung South Korea’s Seoul factory.
The labor union named, Nationwide Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) announced last week that a quarter of Samsung’s total workforce which is 28,000 workers will strike on June 7, 2024.
Samsung Electronics is one of the world’s largest smartphone makers and also one of the only companies globally to produce high-end memory chips used for generative AI, including top-of-the-line AI hardware from industry leaders such as Nvidia.
Management at the firm, the world’s biggest producer of memory chips, has been locked in negotiations with the union over wages since January but the two sides have failed to narrow their differences.
“The first strike at Samsung Electronics is taking place today through the use of paid leave, and it is understood that many employees are participating,” Son Woo-mok, head of the National Samsung Electronics Union said.
“It’s difficult to provide an exact number, but from what I’ve seen of the workplace attendance in the morning, there is a significant difference from the usual,” he added.
Samsung Electronics said it has been “diligently engaging in negotiations with the union and will continue to do so”.
Historic strike
Even so, the strike carries historical importance, “since Samsung resisted unionization and engaged in union-busting for so long,” Vladimir Tikhonov, professor of Korean Studies at the University of Oslo, told AFP.
He said the collective action showed that “there is a gradual tendency towards empowerment of labor in South Korea”.
Samsung Electronics avoided the unionization of its employees for almost 50 years—sometimes adopting ferocious tactics, according to critics—while rising to become the world’s largest smartphone and semiconductor manufacturer.
Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul, who died in 1987, was adamantly opposed to unions, saying he would never allow them “until I have dirt over my eyes”.
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The first labor union at Samsung Electronics was formed in the late 2010s.
In 2020, Lee Jae-yong, the company’s then-vice-chairman and the founder’s grandson, apologized to “everyone who has been pained by labor issues at Samsung”, adding he would “make sure” the company “is not criticized for union-free management”.
Still, the National Samsung Electronics Union, which has around 28,000 members, or more than a fifth of the company’s total workforce, has said the word “strike” has been a “taboo word” at the tech giant.
“We consistently advocate for the company to respect labor issues, stop oppressing unions, and avoid making unilateral decisions on matters so closely related to workers,” union head Son told AFP.
