Samsung claims production unaffected despite union strike

The South Korean tech giant, Samsung announced on Tuesday that production remains unaffected despite a three-day general strike by thousands of its workers.

Over 5,000 members of the National Samsung Electronic Union commenced the first historic labour strike on Monday as part of a long-running dispute over pay and benefits.

The union, representing more than a fifth of the tech giant’s total workforce with over 30,000 members, is pushing for better compensation and working conditions. Read more here.

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Local media quoted Samsung as saying, “There has been no disruption to production.” However, Park Seol, a senior union member, told AFP on Tuesday that production was indeed being affected.

“More importantly, the company should understand that we aren’t just trying to affect their production line; we want them to hear our voice and understand how desperate we are,” he said.

Negotiations between the union and management have been ongoing since January, but the two sides have yet to resolve their differences, particularly over benefits and a 5.1 percent pay raise offer from the tech giant, which the union rejected.

In a recent regulatory filing, Samsung Electronics projected its operating profits for April to June to rise to 10.4 trillion won ($7.54 billion), a significant increase of 1,452.2 percent from 670 billion won a year earlier.

Sales are expected to increase by 23.3 percent to 74 trillion won. As the world’s largest memory chip maker, Samsung Electronics accounts for a substantial portion of the global output of high-end chips.