Management claims strike does not affect semiconductor production at Samsung Electronics

The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU), the largest of Samsung Electronics’ numerous unions, launched a three-day strike on July 8 for the first time in its history, following the imposition of collective annual leave in June. The union said it wanted to halt production, but management said there were no disruptions on the first day.

The first strike since Samsung Electronics was founded in 1969 came just three days after management announced surprisingly high second-quarter profits of over 10 trillion won.

The NSEU stated that it had been negotiating with management since January, but none of its demands had been accepted by management.

“Although Samsung Electronics has achieved an annual operating profit of 40 trillion won (about $29.6 billion), the company is forcing its employees to make self-sacrifices under the pretext of dealing with the crisis,” said Son Woo-mok, chairman of the NSEU. “Management said it could not even pay performance bonuses, but executives collected 2.9 billion won in performance bonuses.”

In response to the union’s claim that the aim of the strike by more than 6,500 of its 30,000 members was to disrupt production, Samsung Electronics stated that only 3,000 workers participated in the strike and that there was no disruption to production.

However, since it is not possible to stop semiconductor production lines, there are concerns that a longer strike could occur.

Although the NSEU is the largest union at Samsung Electronics, representing about a quarter of Samsung Electronics’ total workforce, many of its members are known to work in semiconductor production. In particular, the union said that more than 5,000 of its members who have announced their intention to strike are production workers, such as those in equipment and manufacturing.

The union said that if an agreement is reached in negotiations between workers and employers after the three-day strike, it would proceed with a second strike.