Samsung Electronics Union Plans First-ever Strike

(RTTNews) - Samsung Electronics Co.'s workers union announced its plan to organize the first-ever strike in the South Korean tech major's history, seeking better wage options after negotiations with the management failed.

The National Samsung Electronics Union or NSEU with about 28,000 workers, the largest union among several others at the company, announced the decision Wednesday during a live-streamed press conference.

Following the news, Samsung shares declined 3.1 percent in South Korea to close Wednesday's trading at 75,200 won.

The union's demand is a 6.5 percent pay rise and a bonus based on the company's earnings, and has been negotiating with the company since the start of this year to reach on terms. However, they failed to agree on wage matters at discussion.

A union official at the press conference said the union has declared to start taking strike action, asking all of its members to take annual leave on June 7 as an initial protest.

"We can't stand persecution against labour unions anymore. We are declaring a strike in the face of the company's neglect of labourers," a union representative said.

Last week, NSEU's more than 2,000 company workers had gathered in Seoul in a rally demanding better wages.

Meanwhile, Samsung, the world's largest maker of memory chips, televisions and smartphones, reportedly said it will continue to negotiate with the union.

The news comes as the South Korean major is taking efforts to strengthen its semiconductor business and its competitiveness amid surge in chip demand, despite uncertain global business environment.

The company is boosting its semiconductor manufacturing and research and development activities, mainly in the United States, to meet the skyrocketing demand.

It was last week that Samsung announced the appointment of Young Hyun Jun as the new chief of its chipmaking unit, Device Solutions Division.

In mid-April, the U.S. government offered up to $6.4 billion funding to Samsung to build semiconductor manufacturing and research and development facilities in Texas.

This adds to Samsung's proposed investment of over $40 billion in the state to build a cluster of semiconductor factories in the coming years.

In its latest first quarter, Samsung reported significantly higher net income and operating income mainly as the Memory Business returned to profit by addressing demand for high value-added products.

Sales also climbed on the back of strong sales of flagship Galaxy S24 smartphones and higher prices for memory semiconductors.