Samsung Electronics Union Launches First Strike In 55-Year History

On Monday, the biggest labor union at Samsung Electronics launched its first strike in the tech giant's 55-year history, vowing to continue indefinitely until its demands for better pay and benefits are met. According to Reuters, "The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU), whose roughly 30,000 members make up almost a quarter of the firm's South Korean workforce, said it has decided to continue striking because management has shown no indication of holding talks [...]." From the report: "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 would extend the strike initially planned to last three days through Wednesday. Lee told Reuters that the union found its strike has disrupted production on certain chip lines such as with equipment running more slowly. Samsung previously said the strike has caused no disruption to production. 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 that the five-year-old body did not have enough time to educate members about the labor issues. The union held a training session on Tuesday and will conduct another on Wednesday. Analysts said it would 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% 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% rise in base salary but the union wants 3.5% to better reflect inflation.

let them eat cake

[ihavesaxwithcollies]

Imagine asking a billion dollar company for a half percent more raise and being told, "idk, money is tight this year." US Cop unions give them the unfettered ability to murder anyone at anytime for any reason. Unions just might work.

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[BishopBerkeley]

Especially after Samsung just reported massive profits.

Main union demand should be

[will4]

40 hour work week with 3x pay per hour for any hours beyond that with as maximum number of working hours per week at 48.

Only fair.

[Eunomion]

Samsung may deserve a lot of credit, but a huge part of its success has been due simply to monopolism and political corruption. They've stolen from their employees and their native public.

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[GoTeam]

Samsung may deserve a lot of credit, but a huge part of its success has been due simply to monopolism and political corruption. They've stolen from their employees and their native public.

Sure, but their TVs work great!

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[whitroth]

You, personally, are a freakin' liar, and you have *fake* statistics.

For example, what did you find when you searched for "how much are union dues"?

Oh, you didn't? I did. About 2% of their salary. And there are NO UNION BOSSES making a million dollars a year wirh stock options.

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[GoTeam]

They spend millions on politics and lobbying. They feed the beast like any other corrupt organization. If they only existed in times of need, they wouldn't need any ongoing % of employee pay. An odd thing I've found is that many of the unions that support lower paying professions seem to take a higher percentage of employee income. Plumbers and pipe-fitters can pay 5-6%.

So stay calm and respond like a normal human.

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[whitroth]

Millions o n lobbying? So that's not cool, but it's fine for the hundreds of billions that corporations spend on lobbying?

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[GoTeam]

Nope. Neither is fine. Lobbyists are one level above politicians and three levels below plague rats.

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[LazarusQLong]

Hmmmm.... uh, in the teamsters, there are. I met one once. He was always flying all over the place, very busy man.

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[LazarusQLong]

i would say that it may be that the union, being only 5 years old, is run by people who have little to no experience running unions.

Also, how long have unions been a part of south korean life? Perhaps the strikers are unaware that property destruction is frowned upon... though we in the USA do see strikers sometimes damaging property as well and unions have been a part of American life for something like 100 years or thereabouts.

Is the union culture in South Korea such that they do damage property as a

The inflation point is valid

[Turkinolith]

Inflation as a macroeconomic tool to encourage market participation only works if wages keep up. If wages slip, then wealth gets concentrated while prices continue to escalate and that leads to exactly issues like this.

Ultimately wages should increase else we're testing the edge of the capitalist system till it collapses.