Samsung claims production not impacted as strike enters day two

• Published On: 09 July 2024 at 20:03

Despite a three-day national walkout by thousands of workers, South Korean electronics giant Samsung announced Tuesday that production would not be interrupted.

More than 5,000 members of the National Samsung Electronic Union went on strike Monday, according to the organization, as part of a long-running dispute over wages and benefits.

The union has around 30,000 members, representing more than a quarter of the company's total workforce.

"There has been no disruption in production," Samsung told local media.


Park Seol, a senior union member, told AFP on Tuesday that production was being impacted.

"But more importantly, the company should understand that we aren't trying just to affect their production line, we want them to hear our voice and understand how desperate we are," he told me.

The union has been negotiating with management since January, but the two sides have been unable to reduce benefit gaps, and the firm's offer of a 5.1% wage hike was rejected.

In a regulatory filing last week, Samsung Electronics stated that its operational profits for April-June were forecast to increase to 10.4 trillion won ($7.54 billion), up 1,452.2 percent from 670 billion won the previous year.

Meanwhile, sales are likely to increase by 23.3% to 74 trillion won, Samsung added.

Samsung Electronics is the world's largest memory chip manufacturer, producing a major portion of the world's high-end semiconductors.