A Samsung Electronics union in South Korea will begin escalating strike action next week by staging the first ever walkout over demands for higher wages, union officials said on Wednesday.
The National Samsung Electronics Union , which has about 28,000 members, or more than a fifth of the company's total workforce, said it will stop work for one day on June 7 as part of broader protest measures. Responding to a decision by the company to increase wages this year by 5.1%, the union has previously said that it wanted an additional day of annual leave as well as transparent performance-based bonuses.
"The company has been saying they are facing crisis all along for the past 10 year," Son Woo-mok, president of NSEU told reporters, but added that the firm should not use it as an excuse not to meet its demands. The strike announcement comes as Samsung, one of the world's biggest chipmakers and smartphone makers, appears to be faltering in some areas, including cutting-edge semiconductor chips.