TapTechNews May 29, the National Samsung Electronics Union in South Korea announced today that the labor-management negotiation has broken down and will launch the first strike in the 55-year history of Samsung Electronics in the form of taking collective annual leave on June 7.
The National Samsung Electronics Union in South Korea is the largest union inside Samsung Electronics, with 28,400 members, accounting for about 22% of the total number of employees in the enterprise.
The representative of the National Samsung Electronics Union in South Korea said that the main reason for deciding to go on strike officially is the company's 'ignorance of the union'.
From the perspective of the strike time, this strike action is still relatively soft:
June 6, the day before June 7, is the Memorial Day in South Korea, and June 7 is also Friday. Many employees would have chosen to use their annual leave on June 7 to make a four-day holiday.
The average annual salary of Samsung Electronics employees in 2023 is 120 million Korean won (TapTechNews note: currently about 640,000 RMB).
Samsung Electronics previously reached an agreement with the Labor-Management Consultative Committee to increase the average salary by 5.1% this year, but this is independent of the negotiation at the union level.
The National Samsung Electronics Union in South Korea believes that the increase of 5.1% is too low and demands to increase the salary increase rate to 6.5%.
Another focus of the negotiation between the two sides is the performance bonus system of Samsung Electronics.
The union demands that Samsung Electronics adjust the measurement standard of the performance bonus from calculating according to the economic added value (after-tax operating net profit minus capital investment) to calculating according to the operating profit like SK Hynix and LG Electronics.
The members of the National Samsung Electronics Union mainly come from the DS department of Samsung Electronics. Last year, this department suffered losses, resulting in these employees not receiving performance bonuses.