South Korea: Samsung Electronics Union Calls First-Ever Strike

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Facts

• South Korean chipmaking behemoth Samsung Electronics on Friday witnessed a large section of its workers staging a walkout for the first time in its 55-year history.¹
• The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) — which has around 28K members, 20% of the company's total workforce in the country — said the one-day protest was for better pay.²
• The strike follows the failure of negotiations between NSEU and the Samsung management, which had been going on since January.³
• While the union had accepted increased wages offered by Samsung earlier, it's also seeking an additional holiday and 'a transparent system' to measure performance bonuses.⁴
• Workers at Samsung Electronics, the flagship of the largest South Korean family-controlled conglomerate, have threatened a full-scale strike if their demands aren't met.⁵
• Samsung's 2023 operating profit hit a 15-year low after its chip division suffered heavy losses, while rival SK Hynix outpaced it in the booming market for high-bandwidth memory chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) processors.⁶

Sources: ¹CNN, ²reuters.co, ³france24.com, ⁴Guardian, ⁵BBC News and ⁶Fortune Asia.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by KED Global. Samsung Electronics has long been regarded as one of the world's best employers. Employees have often praised it for a range of things, from talent development to work-life balance. The chipmaker has consistently improved its working environment and corporate culture, fostering high employee satisfaction. The current strike must be viewed in this context and deemed a temporary blip.
• Narrative B, as provided by English. Beyond the global fawning over Samsung Electronics' supposed showering of largesse over its workers lies a dark reality: The company's workers face challenging conditions, as reflected in the death of an employee in Vietnam in 2016, which raised concerns about overwork and toxic exposure. The workers striking now in South Korea indeed have legitimate concerns.

Predictions