Samsung Electronics Co’s unionized workers began voting yesterday on whether to stage an 18-day strike in demand of higher pay.
Voting by three unions continues through March 18 on the proposal, according to a statement by Samsung Electronics Labor Union (SELU). If approved, the walkout should take place from May 21 to June 7.
SELU, together with National Samsung Electronics Union and Samsung Electronics Union Donghaeng, has been in wage negotiations with the electronics giant for more than three months, the statement said.
Photo: AFP
The labor groups are seeking a 7 percent pay increase, the removal of the performance bonus cap and greater transparency in how they are calculated.
The unions represent about 89,000 of Samsung’s roughly 130,000 employees, Yonhap News Agency reported on Sunday.
In particular, with the high union membership rate among employees in Samsung’s semiconductor business, combined with the union’s intense pressure, worries over production disruptions for major products such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM) — which are essential for advanced processors used in artificial intelligence (AI) systems — are growing, BusinessKorea reported yesterday.
Last month, Samsung became the first in the industry to begin mass production and shipment of HBM4 and commenced production of products intended for installation in Nvidia Corp’s next-generation Vera Rubin AI accelerator.
Nvidia plans to release the Vera Rubin AI accelerator in the second half of this year, meaning that May — the period the unions have announced for the strike — is precisely when HBM manufacturing would be in full swing, according to the report.
If the industrial action plan goes ahead, it would be only the second strike in the company’s history. Workers staged their first walkout in 2024 after pay talks broke down. Samsung said at the time the disruption didn’t affect production or management operations.
Samsung Electronics didn’t respond to a Bloomberg News request for comment.
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