Samsung Electronics is facing its first worker strike in its 55-year history

midian182

midian182

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In brief: Samsung Electronics will soon face something it has never dealt with during the company's 55-year history: a worker strike. Union representatives have called for the industrial action after talks over wage increases broke down.

The National Samsung Electronics Union, which has about 28,000 members, or little over a fifth of the company's total workforce, will ask members to collectively use a day of paid leave on June 7. The union has not ruled out a full-scale strike at a later date.

"We can no longer tolerate labor oppression and union oppression. We are declaring a strike, given the management's attitude of ignoring workers," the union said.

Talks and negotiations between the union and management have been taking place since January without the sides managing to agree on wage increases. The union wants a 6.5% rise, an additional day of annual leave, and a bonus linked to the company's earnings. Samsung said it would increase wages this year by 5.1%.

Reuters writes that Samsung workers have been intermittently participating in protests in recent weeks outside the company's offices in the capital city Seoul as well as outside its chip production site in Hwaseong, south of Seoul.

Samsung Group only allowed unions to represent its workers in 2020 after its chairman was prosecuted for market manipulation and bribery.

A strike couldn't come at a worse time for Samsung Electronics. The company replaced the head of its semiconductor business last week in response to it falling behind in the development of high-bandwidth memory chips needed for AI and HPC systems, a move it called a "pre-emptive measure" to ensure it remains competitive.

Although its net profit was up during the first quarter, Samsung's share of the chip foundry business has shrunk in recent years from 18% to 12% as rival TSMC's expanded from 50% to 59%.

A coalition of five unions at Samsung affiliates, including another Samsung Electronics union, said they would not be joining the strike. The coalition said in a statement that the move appears to be part of efforts to join a combative umbrella union, rather than to improve workers' conditions.

Samsung Electronics says it will continue to negotiate with the union.

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Samsung Electronics is facing its first worker strike in its 55-year history

 
An extra day off in the year??....weird request, unless people in South Korea are not allow to request a day off.
 
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toooooot said:
A bonus linked to company growth. That one is probably the one that they do not want to give
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The Talking Tech said:
True, I wouldn't give up on that one either....
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I've had this thought for many years. When companies post record profits and all the employees get is "market rate wages" I, too, would be frustrated. A big complaint I here these days is that people are not loyal to the company and rarely go above and beyond what is asked of them. I think bonuses and raises linked to company profits would incentivize employees very quickly to work for the good of the company instead of just trying to earn a pay check.

I also think there should be a different term rather than "bonuses" if the money they are receiving is based on company earnings. A bonus should be a reward for performance higher than what is expected of you. Should be something like "salary with performance based bonus and earnings compensation." Currently, the only people who get rewarded from earnings are people who get stock options as part of their package which is usually executives and management. Which, big surprise, are the people who make the rules.
 
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yRaz said:
I've had this thought for many years. When companies post record profits and all the employees get is "market rate wages" I, too, would be frustrated. A big complaint I here these days is that people are not loyal to the company and rarely go above and beyond what is asked of them. I think bonuses and raises linked to company profits would incentivize employees very quickly to work for the good of the company instead of just trying to earn a pay check.

I also think there should be a different term rather than "bonuses" if the money they are receiving is based on company earnings. A bonus should be a reward for performance higher than what is expected of you. Should be something like "salary with performance based bonus and earnings compensation." Currently, the only people who get rewarded from earnings are people who get stock options as part of their package which is usually executives and management. Which, big surprise, are the people who make the rules.
Click to expand...

They can only do what you are suggesting by lowering dividends for shareholders, and I don't think any company, especially old giant company like Samsung will ever agree to that. In the end, a part of those record profits comes from squeezing as much as possible the productivity of normal employees without proper compensations.
 
MarcusNumb said:
They can only do what you are suggesting by lowering dividends for shareholders, and I don't think any company, especially old giant company like Samsung will ever agree to that. In the end, a part of those record profits comes from squeezing as much as possible the productivity of normal employees without proper compensations.
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Found the shareholder

A company that makes and provides products should only have to cater to two people, the workers and the consumers. The everlasting chase to make the shareholders happy benefits noone. And if you look at how the market is flooded with poor quality products in every category, then making shareholders happy hurts even them in the race to the bottom
 
yRaz said:
A big complaint I here these days is that people are not loyal to the company and rarely go above and beyond what is asked of them. I think bonuses and raises linked to company profits would incentivize employees very quickly to work for the good of the company instead of just trying to earn a pay check.
Click to expand...
It's amazing what people will do for the chance to earn a few extra dollars in a paycheck, so long as the goal is realistic and achievable, preferably tiered. Only a few employers use profit sharing or performance based metrics for labor. I don't know if company wide based metrics are effective. The employee needs to feel like they can make a difference to the outcome, so maybe store/plant based performance metrics are the way to go.
 
yRaz said:
Found the shareholder

A company that makes and provides products should only have to cater to two people, the workers and the consumers. The everlasting chase to make the shareholders happy benefits noone. And if you look at how the market is flooded with poor quality products in every category, then making shareholders happy hurts even them in the race to the bottom
Click to expand...
Well I totally agree with you, honestly and wholeheartedly. But we both know that is not what's happening in the majority companies.
 
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In the time period after WW2, the USA was the manufacturing giant of the world. When workers started demanding more money, CEO's looked overseas. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan welcomed them to grow
their countries, devastated after WW2. Once they started growing, their workers started demanding more
and more money, CEO's looked to other places.
After Nixon "opened up" China and Clinton signed the most favored trade nation deal in October of 2000, it
opened up manufacturing with China. Now the "employees" of China pretty much can't demand anything in
a communist dictatorship, so the CEO's thought they were safe.
As people are starting to sour with China, the CEO's are again looking for a new territory they can exploit.
And they've found it in India. And so the cycle starts again.
 
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yRaz said:
I've had this thought for many years. When companies post record profits and all the employees get is "market rate wages" I, too, would be frustrated. A big complaint I here these days is that people are not loyal to the company and rarely go above and beyond what is asked of them. I think bonuses and raises linked to company profits would incentivize employees very quickly to work for the good of the company instead of just trying to earn a pay check.

I also think there should be a different term rather than "bonuses" if the money they are receiving is based on company earnings. A bonus should be a reward for performance higher than what is expected of you. Should be something like "salary with performance based bonus and earnings compensation." Currently, the only people who get rewarded from earnings are people who get stock options as part of their package which is usually executives and management. Which, big surprise, are the people who make the rules.
Click to expand...
You said it best sir!
 
p51d007 said:
In the time period after WW2, the USA was the manufacturing giant of the world. When workers started demanding more money, CEO's looked overseas. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan welcomed them to grow
their countries, devastated after WW2. Once they started growing, their workers started demanding more
and more money, CEO's looked to other places.
After Nixon "opened up" China and Clinton signed the most favored trade nation deal in October of 2000, it
opened up manufacturing with China. Now the "employees" of China pretty much can't demand anything in
a communist dictatorship, so the CEO's thought they were safe.
As people are starting to sour with China, the CEO's are again looking for a new territory they can exploit.
And they've found it in India. And so the cycle starts again.
Click to expand...

-From a 10,000ft view it's all about labor vs capital.

US fought it's bloodiest war because rich southerners might have had to pay black people a buck. Literally preferable to arrange your entire society around racism than pay a dude for an honest day's work.

Second largest insurrection in the US was the West Virginia Coal Miner's strike.

We all take our weekends and 40 hour work weeks for granted (even call people lazy if that want to go below that standard) but we only ever got to this level because of the blood the workers that came before shed for those basic dignities and privileges.
 
Fuddruckers is closing all locations, Old Country Buffet closing all locations, iHOP is closing 100 locations, Buffalo Wild Wings closing all CA locations and 60 US, Applebees is closing 35, Red Lobster closing 50, Denny's closing 20, Marie Callenders closing all locations, Pizza Hut planning to close 500 locations, Outback Steakhouse closing 41 locations, Sbarro closing 50 locations, Mod Pizza closing 27 locations, Ruby Tuesday closing 16, PDQ is closing 8 locations, Joes Crab shack closing 41 locations, Bonefish Grill closing 7,
Dollar Tree closing 600 stores, CVS is closing 900 stores, Walgreens is closing 150 stores, UPS is cutting 12,000 jobs, Citigroup cutting 20,000 jobs, eBay cut over 1000, Microsoft cutting 1900, Expedia is cutting 1500, Cisco cutting 4000, Apple cutting 600, Regal Cinema closing 429 locations, Krogers Grocery closing 413 locations, Foot Locker closing 400 stores by 2026, Macy’s closing 150 locations by 2026
 
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