Samsung labor union demands chief step in

Samsung Electronics union members hold a press conference near Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s house in Seoul on Thursday. (Yonhap)

Samsung Electronics’ labor union protested in front of Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s residence in Seoul on Thursday, calling on the Samsung chief to step in over their stalled wage talks with management.

The National Samsung Electronics Union, which accounts for about 24 percent of the total workforce of the tech giant, launched an indefinite strike on July 8.

“We ask Chairman Lee to come forward and show his position to resolve the full-scale strike,” the union said at a press conference near the chairman’s house.

Lee is currently on a business trip to Europe to meet business partners on the sidelines of the Paris Olympics.

Thursday’s gathering came as the NSEU declared a final breakdown in their latest three-day wage talks with management.

The union has been demanding a 5.6 percent basic pay raise for all members, improvement of the performance-based pay system, a guaranteed day off on the union's foundation day and compensation for economic losses due to the strike.

Meanwhile, Samsung has offered payment via "refreshment points," worth about 500,000 won ($367), for all employees, reduced mandatory use of annual leave from 15 days to 10 and recognition of paid union activities for four hours during general meetings.

Their talks, however, fell apart as they failed to reach an agreement, especially on the union’s demand for an additional 2 million points that could be used at Samsung Family Net, a website for employees to purchase company products.

“Even when we talk about minimum requirements to end this situation, the management thinks they will lose if even one of them is accepted. .... If even one of the requests was acknowledged, I would not be standing here,” said Son Woo-mok, head of the NSEU.

“Chairman Lee said he would abolish ‘no union’ management. But is he keeping his promise? He is fully responsible for the ongoing crisis,” he added.

Samsung held its second-quarter earnings call Wednesday and mentioned that its labor union's ongoing strike would have a limited impact on its overall production. Regarding the company’s explanation, the union said there “will be problems.”

“The semiconductor process is usually not affected immediately. … However, there has been a problem in the film process where some 1,000 lots of wafers are on standby (because of the ongoing strike),” an NSEU official said.

Samsung’s largest labor union is expected to escalate the level of its strike as it will lose its representative bargaining union status from Monday.

If negotiations are not concluded within one year, another union can apply for the representative status. The NSEU cannot continue the industrial action as it must proceed with individual negotiations or go through the process of unifying the negotiation channel again.

The union plans to hold another press conference at the National Assembly on Monday.

By Jie Ye-eun(yeeun@heraldcorp.com)