By Heekyong Yang and Ju-min Park
SEOUL (Reuters) -A Samsung Electronics (KS:) union staged its first walkout on Friday, signalling extra assertiveness amongst staff simply as South Korea’s strongest conglomerate races to catch up in chips utilized in synthetic intelligence (AI).
The Nationwide Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU), whose roughly 28,000 members make up over a fifth of the agency’s workforce, stated it’s going to cease work for a day to demand higher pay.
The walkout is unlikely to right away impression semiconductor manufacturing or shipments however will add stress on Samsung Electronics because it chases AI and narrows a niche in contract chip manufacturing with Taiwan’s TSMC, analysts stated.
“The aim of as we speak’s strike motion is to have significant dialog with administration,” NSEU official Lee Hyun-kuk advised Reuters. He stated the union was getting ready additional motion on Friday, with out offering particulars.
Samsung Electronics stated there was no impression on manufacturing or enterprise exercise. The strike fell a day after a public vacation and the variety of workers on annual go away was fewer than on the equal day final yr, the agency stated.
The union didn’t disclose what number of members participated within the strike via annual go away.
“We now have sincerely engaged with the union and can proceed talks with them,” stated an organization official.
Samsung Electronics’ share worth was up 0.1% versus 0.7% within the benchmark as of 0234 GMT.
The walkout is unlikely to impression DRAM or NAND flash reminiscence manufacturing or result in cargo shortages as manufacturing is very automated, stated market researcher TrendForce.
Furthermore, the walkout seems to contain extra staff from the agency’s Seoul headquarters than in manufacturing and is deliberate for a single day after a public vacation which some workers had doubtless already utilized to take off, TrendForce stated.
The strike follows different employee protests in latest weeks outdoors workplaces in Seoul in addition to outdoors a chip manufacturing website in Hwaseong, south of the capital.
They began after Samsung Electronics determined to extend wages this yr by 5.1%. The NSEU, the most important of 5 unions on the agency, need additional commitments comparable to enchancment to the performance-based bonus system and an additional day of annual go away.
Final week, a coalition of 5 unions at Samsung associates together with one other smaller Samsung Electronics union known as on the NSEU to pursue negotiation reasonably than confrontation, indicating they’d not be a part of the strike.
Samsung Electronics’ run of success is being challenged in some areas, together with in some cutting-edge chips. It just lately changed the top of its semiconductor unit to navigate what it known as a “disaster” affecting the business.
Union membership elevated quickly after the agency in 2020 pledged to finish to its apply of discouraging the expansion of organised labour.
Union officers stated, amongst youthful workers, there may be rising notion that unions can assist create a fairer office, whereas older generations felt unions might disrupt productiveness.
Total, South Korea’s union membership price has hovered round 10% since 2004, labour ministry information confirmed.
