The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) has decided to go on strike for the first time since the establishment of Samsung Electronics.
NSEU held a press conference at 11 a.m. on the 29th in front of the Samsung Electronics office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, and announced, “The company is ignoring the union by not presenting any agenda regarding wage negotiations. All responsibility lies with the company, and we hereby declare an immediate strike.”
The union plans to go on strike by having its members take collective annual leave on the 7th of next month, a stepping-stone holiday.
NSEU, the largest union within Samsung Electronics, has been negotiating wages with the company for 2023 since December 2022 but has not reached an agreement.
In January, they also merged the wage negotiations for 2024. However, they secured the right to dispute after a vote on the pros and cons of the dispute, as they could not narrow the differences in the Central Labor Committee’s mediation in March.
NSEU, which held large-scale rallies on the 17th and 24th of last month, also tried to negotiate with the company on the 28th, but it ended without any results.
During the rally last month, the union demanded an apology from the company and a change in the negotiating committee when Chairman Son Woo Mok was injured.
However, the negotiations did not conclude, as the company did not accept this either.
Lee Hyun Guk, the vice-chairman of NSEU, broadcast through a YouTube live, “We tried to resolve it through conversation, but the company disrupted peaceful struggle and ignored it. The responsibility for the full-scale dispute activity lies entirely with the company.”
Son emphasized, “We cannot overlook a company that does not want to negotiate. NSEU will fight for the minimum rights of workers.”
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