Follow-up – Al Rashid
A union representing tens of thousands of Samsung Electronics workers in South Korea has declared an “indefinite general strike” to force management to “increase wages and improve working conditions.”
After Samsung Electronics workers began an unprecedented three-day strike last Monday, the company’s national union said in a statement, “We declare a second open-ended general strike starting July 10 after we learned that management is not ready for dialogue after the first general strike.”
Since Monday, more than 5,000 Samsung employees have been on strike for three days after “protracted negotiations between the two parties over wages and benefits failed.”
The union decided to strike for three days after a one-day strike it carried out in June.
This is the first social movement of its kind within the company, which has not witnessed a union for decades.
The Samsung Electronics National Union has more than 30,000 members, more than a fifth of the company’s total workforce.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted Samsung management as saying that “production was not disrupted,” although the union said that “the strike had a major impact on the company’s work.”
In its statement issued on Wednesday, the union said, “We have confirmed the clear disruption of production, and the management will regret this choice.”
The statement added, “The longer the strike lasts, the more the administration will suffer and will end up kneeling and sitting at the negotiating table. We are confident of victory.”
Samsung Electronics is one of the world’s largest smartphone manufacturers and one of the few companies worldwide that produces advanced memory chips used in generative AI, including advanced AI devices.
