Following a breakdown in negotiation regarding pay hikes, around three-quarters of the approximately 27,000 members of five Samsung Electronics unions have voted to potentially strike against the company.
If the strike does go ahead, it will be the first ever against the company which employs 124,800 people in South Korea.
Before the latest vote, the unions filed for a ten-day government mediation period, which proved unsuccessful in resolving the dispute. The legal requirement for such an act is that more than half members support the collective action – which has been met.
The country’s biggest company by market value, Samsung prohibited the formation of unions until as recently as four years ago. However, a number of executives were handed jail terms for attempting to disband unions at its affiliates, forcing a change in their policy towards unions.
Samsung QN900D Neo QLED 8K Smart TV (Image: Supplied by Samsung)
The five unions who voted on the new strike represent a range of workers including white-collar workers, blue-collar workers in the network department in Gumi, general workers nationwide, blue-collar workers in the semiconductor division nationwide and blue-collar workers in the device experience division in Suwon which includes smartphones, consumer appliance and TV production units.
The unions are seeking better pay as well as additional paid days off and bigger bonuses. The National Samsung Electronics Union, the biggest union among the five, said it could accept the company’s suggestion of a 5.1 per cent pay increase if Samsung also changes its rules to offer bigger bonuses. At present, an average Samsung employee in the country makes around A$135,000 annually.
In a show of strength, the unions plan to stage a rally with about 1,000 members next week at the company’s semiconductor office in Hwaseong, south of Seoul.
“The company always leaves the door open for dialogue,” Samsung said in a statement. “We will make efforts not to cause trouble in normal business activities, communicating continuously to narrow the gap between the unions and the company.”
