Last month, Samsung workers at one of its factories in South Korea threatened to go on strike over a dispute over bonuses. If Samsung couldn’t meet the union’s demands, workers would go on strike on May 21. Unfortunately, it looks like Samsung has fail to strike a deal with the union, which means the strike will proceed.
Samsung negotiations fail, strike will proceed
According to a report out of Korea, last-minute negotiations have failed. This means that it’s almost a guarantee that the strike will go ahead. This has huge implications for Samsung because if its workers were to go on strike, it would effectively shut down one of its plants.
For those unfamiliar with what’s going on, Samsung union workers have demanded bonuses worth 15% of the company’s operating profit. That amounts to $30 billion in bonuses, which is a huge sum of money. The union is also demanding that Samsung remove the current payout cap.
To make matters worse, Samsung’s competitors are essentially doing what Samsung couldn’t or does not want to. SK Hynix, which also manufactures memory components, has a transparent and uncapped bonus linked to 10% of its profit. For context, SK Hynix has actually paid out more to its workers, despite Samsung’s best efforts to negotiate. This is why it’s not surprising that Samsung’s workers are feeling disgruntled.
The bigger implications of the strike
That being said, there’s more to this story than just about employees getting paid their dues. Obviously $30 billion in bonuses is a lot of money to Samsung, but is the company failing to see the bigger picture? The fail Samsung negotiations leading to the strike has bigger implications than just about employee pay.
Starting up a factory’s production again isn’t as straightforward as flipping a switch. You strike one day and the next day things are back online? Nope, not that easy. It is estimated that if the workers were to follow through on the strike, it could cause operations to halt for 2 months. After that, getting things back up and running again could take as long as 36 days.
Of course, Samsung has other factories in other parts of the country and the world. However, one shutting down for almost 3 months will definitely have an impact. Let’s not forget the ongoing memory crisis, and with Samsung being a big player, it definitely isn’t doing the world any favors.
The post Samsung Negotiations Fail and Workers Are Going on Strike Tomorrow appeared first on Android Headlines.
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