The union representing thousands of Samsung Electronics workers in South Korea announced plans for a general strike this week, one month after employees staged a light walkout.
The National Samsung Electronics Union on Tuesday said it plans to launch the general strike on July 8 and demanded the company improve bonus packages and increase time off. The union represents over 28,000 Samsung workers, around a fifth of the company’s workforce.
The strike is intended to last until July 10, with union leaders implying they’re open to another work stoppage if the company doesn’t meet their demands.
“We are declaring a general strike today. Until our demands are met, we will fight with the ‘no pay no work’ general strike,” union President Son Woo-mok said in a live stream Monday.
The announcement comes one month after the union staged a walkout, with many participants using their annual time off to partake. The company said the one-day walkout didn’t affect production. According to reports, workers who participated were mostly office workers and not manufacturing employees.
If only a limited number of the union’s members participate in the planned strike, it’s unlikely to have a significant impact on Samsung’s chip production. However, if the general strikes become a regular occurrence, and manufacturing employees participate, it could hurt the company’s ability to compete with other giants like Nvidia in the race to produce artificial intelligence chips.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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