Thousands of workers rallied Monday outside Samsung’s chipmaking complexes south of Seoul to kick start what originally was a three-day walkout demanding better pay. — Bloomberg
Seoul: Samsung Electronics Co’s labour union of 28,000-plus workers declared an indefinite strike in a move that threatens production at the world’s largest maker of memory chips.
The union’s call for a general strike sharply escalates a dispute with South Korea’s biggest company.
Thousands of workers rallied Monday outside Samsung’s chipmaking complexes south of Seoul to kick start what originally was a three-day walkout demanding better pay.
It’s the largest organised labour action in the South Korean conglomerate’s half-century history.
A representative for Samsung was not immediately able to respond to a request for comment.
“Management has no intention of dialogue,” the union said in a statement on its website. “We have clearly identified production-line disruptions and the company will regret this decision,” it said. “Management will eventually relent and come to the negotiating table.”
Shares of Samsung pared earlier gains to dip 0.2% in Seoul yesterday. Much of Samsung’s production is automated, but the company can ill-afford any manufacturing snarls in the coming weeks.
The company is trying to convince Nvidia Corp to use its high-bandwidth memory, a prerequisite for it to catch up to smaller rival SK Hynix Inc in the booming artificial intelligence (AI) arena.
Samsung’s largest union spent weeks preparing for the walkout, after negotiations over pay and vacation time collapsed last month. It marked an escalation from a single-day strike in early June – the first in Samsung’s 55 years of existence.
The action is intended to drive home their demands by disrupting production at one of the company’s most advanced chip facilities, union leaders have said.
It also coincides with Samsung’s biggest product launch of the year in Paris, where it’s expected to unveil new foldable phones and watches with AI and novel health tracking features. — Bloomberg
