Samsung workers begin three-day strike in South Korea

Tens of thousands of workers at Samsung Electronics in South Korea – one of the world’s largest chipmakers – began a three-day strike for better wages on Monday.

The union threatened that it would take further action against the country’s largest conglomerate if its demands were not met.

The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU), whose approximately 30,000 members make up almost a quarter of the company’s South Korean workforce, is also calling for an additional day of vacation for union members.

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However, due to low turnout and automated production, the strike is unlikely to have a major impact on production at the world’s largest memory chip maker, analysts said.

The union held its first industrial action last month, coordinating annual leave to effectively stage a mass strike. Samsung said the action had no impact on its business.

The company declined to comment on Monday’s strike.

The union, which did not disclose its participation rate last month, said 6,540 workers are striking this week, most of them at manufacturing sites and in product development.

On Monday, crowds of workers gathered near Samsung’s headquarters in Hwaseong, south of Seoul.

Union president Son Woo-mok denied media reports of low participation rates, saying the young union, founded only five years ago, had not had enough time to train rank-and-file union members.

“There has been insufficient education among union members and workers about unions. But I do not think that this participation is low because our union is still young compared to other unions,” he said.

Further strikes if demands are not met

Lee Hyun-kuk, a senior union leader, said last week that if demands are not heard this time, there could be another wave of strikes.

Union representatives described the company’s bonus system as unfair because it is calculated on the basis of capital costs deducted from operating profits.

Union membership at Samsung has increased since the tech giant pledged in 2020 to stop hindering the growth of organized labor.

This growth reflects declining employee loyalty and poses another problem for Samsung as it struggles to compete for chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, analysts say.

On Friday, Samsung estimated that its operating profit would increase by more than 15 times in the second quarter. Rising semiconductor prices driven by the AI ​​boom pushed profits up from the low level of the previous year. Nevertheless, the share price development lagged behind that of chip competitor SK Hynix.

The company’s share price was up 0.5% by midday Monday, after rising as much as 1.72% earlier in the session to its highest level since January 2021. Last week, it rose 6.9% on the back of better-than-expected preliminary second-quarter results.

• Reuters with additional editing by Jim Pollard

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Jim Pollard

Jim Pollard is an Australian journalist who has lived in Thailand since 1999. He worked for News Ltd newspapers in Sydney, Perth, London and Melbourne before travelling around South East Asia in the late 1990s. He was senior editor of The Nation for over 17 years.