SEOUL, Feb. 7 (UPI) —<\/span> The unionized workers of Samsung Electronics are set to go on a strike for the first time since the tech giant was established in 1969.<\/p>\n Its first trade union was formed in 2018.\n<\/p>\n<\/article>\n The National Samsung Electronics Labor Union, the biggest out of Samsung’s four trade unions, filed an arbitration to the National Labor Relations Commission on Friday.<\/p>\n As a result, Samsung Electronics is required to reach a wage agreement with the four trade unions within 10 days. Otherwise, unionists are entitled to walk out.\n<\/p>\n “We have gone through 15 rounds of talks in six months. But the management delayed the negotiations in a deceitful manner,” the NSEU said in a statement. “We have filed an arbitration, as the talks are not likely to proceed any longer.”<\/p>\n Under the umbrella of the Federation of Korean Metalworkers’ Trade Union, the NSEU is composed of around 4,800 workers, about 4% of total Samsung employees.<\/p>\n Their collective action is feared to negatively affect the operation of Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chip maker, during a shortage.\n<\/p>\n The NSEU and other Samsung unions have initially requested a salary raise of $8,300 for all the workers, as well as a yearly bonus amounting to 25% of the company’s operating profit.\n<\/p>\n As Samsung Electronics earned $43 billion in operating income last year, the unionists’ demand is to receive more than $10 billion in total.<\/p>\n “What we’re really asking for is that the company set a rule for the performance bonus. At present, we’re not demanding 25% of the operating profit,” NSEU Secretary-General Son Woo-mok told UPI News Korea.\n<\/p>\n “One of our key complaints is that our vacations are way too short. But the management refuses to consider that. It’s one of the main issues,” he added.<\/p>\n Observers said Samsung Electronics would not be able to give a big chunk of its operating profit to employees as annual bonuses.<\/p>\n “I don’t think that the Samsung union workers would walk out. They appear to be pressuring the management to make further concessions,” Seoul-based business tracker Leaders Index CEO Park Ju-gun said in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n “As Samsung Electronics’ profit is way too high, it would be improbable to give out 25%, or more than $10 billion, to employees,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Samsung Electronics’ unionized workers may go on strike for the first time if the arbitration of the country\u2019s government agency falls apart. Photo courtesy of Samsung Electronics SEOUL, Feb. 7 (UPI) — The unionized workers of Samsung Electronics are set to go on a strike for the first time since the tech giant was established […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":980473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-980472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=980472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980472\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=980472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=980472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=980472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Samsung](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Samsung-employees-set-to-go-on-first-ever-strike.jpg\" "\\"Samsung")
\n<\/div>\nSamsung Electronics’ unionized workers may go on strike for the first time if the arbitration of the country\u2019s government agency falls apart. Photo courtesy of Samsung Electronics<\/p>\n