Authors: Heekyung Yang, Joo Min Park and Hyunsoo Yim
SEOUL (Reuters) – The Samsung Electronics (KS:) union in South Korea will begin an escalating strike next week over demands for higher wages, union officials said on Wednesday.
The union, which has about 28,000 members, or more than a fifth of the company’s workforce, said it would stop work for one day on June 7 as part of wider protest measures.
The announcement was made by union officials at a live-streamed news conference, where they held a banner reading: “We can no longer tolerate labor repression, union repression.”
Responding to the company’s decision to increase wages by 5.1% this year, the union previously said it wanted an extra day of annual leave as well as transparent performance bonuses.
The union on Wednesday accused the tech giant of failing to offer a compromise plan in talks held the day before.
In a statement on Wednesday, Samsung Electronics said: “We will wholeheartedly participate in negotiations with the union.”
The union representative defended the decision to go on strike at a time when parts of Samsung’s business are underperforming.
“The company has been saying it is facing a crisis for the last 10 years,” a union spokesman told reporters, but added that the firm should not use this as an excuse for not meeting its demands.
The union said its action on June 7 would affect all company facilities throughout South Korea.
The strike announcement comes as Samsung appears to be struggling in some areas, including the production of advanced semiconductor chips.
Samsung replaced the head of its semiconductor division last week, saying it needed a new person at the top to deal with what it called a “crisis” affecting the chip industry.
More than 2,000 unionized workers at the South Korean tech giant gathered in Seoul last week for a rare rally to demand higher wages.
Samsung Electronics shares traded 1.9% lower on Wednesday, compared with the index’s 1.4% decline at 0337 GMT.