Samsung Electronics' workers threaten first-ever strike

The National Labor Relations Commission, a government agency under the Labor Ministry, held a coordinating session to arbitrate the wage deal between the two parties a day earlier but ended up deciding to stop the talks as the two sides could not reach an agreement.

The Thursday meeting marks the third attempt for the Labour Commission to arbitrate for both sides. Previously, the commission recommended a one-time mediation extension as a condition for management's submission of its final wage decision plan.

The latest decision has led the labour union, which consists of some 20,000 members, or 16 % of the company’s employees, to secure the right to legally strike through a vote of its membership. The group is the biggest single labour union in the company.

The union is planning to hold a vote for and against its first-ever labour strike starting Monday, but it will also hold a final round of negotiations with management on the same day to attempt to reach an agreement at the same time.

The union and management held their sixth round of talks over this year's wage increase last month but negotiations broke down as the two sides failed to narrow the gap. The union then brought the dispute to the Labour Commission for arbitration.

The labour-management council of Samsung Electronics, which recorded its fourth consecutive quarter of losses in the chips business, reportedly sought a 5.74 % wage increase, while the union requested an 8.1 % wage hike and the company countered with a 2.5 % base wage increase.

When previous wage negotiations broke down in 2022 and 2023, the unionized workers filed for a labour dispute mediation with the labour commission and ended up securing the right to strike, but did not walk off the job.

Jie Ye-eun

The Korea Herald

Asia News Network