Samsung’s Labor Crisis: Key Insights on the Impending Strike and Negotiation Outcomes

Translation result.

[Anchor] With Samsung Electronics’ union set to launch a full-scale strike tomorrow, labor and management are holding last-minute talks. Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon personally stepped in to mediate and reopened negotiations. We now go to our reporter on the scene, Seo Seung-taek. [Reporter] Yes. After failing to find common ground this morning and declaring negotiations dead, Samsung Electronics and the union resumed talks here at 4:25 p.m. They have been meeting for about five hours. Minister Kim Young-hoon personally convened the talks. This is not the post-adjustment mediation run by the Central Labor Relations Commission (CLRC); rather, the minister is chairing an autonomous labor-management negotiation. Earlier today, the two sides failed to reach an agreement during a post-adjustment session at the CLRC held at the Sejong Government Complex. The union says it accepted the CLRC’s proposed settlement but that delays in management’s decision-making caused the mediation to collapse, so it plans to proceed with the strike tomorrow as scheduled. Management, however, argues the union made excessive demands and that accepting them would undermine the company’s core management principles. Even after the talks broke down, both sides said they remained willing to negotiate and kept the door open. Minister Kim brought them back to the table to try to avert the strike, and last-minute talks have continued. The Labor Ministry said there is still time to negotiate and pledged to use any available means, regardless of form, to facilitate the talks. It added that it is too early to consider invoking emergency arbitration and stressed that autonomous labor-management dialogue remains the guiding principle. On the final evening before the strike, attention is focused on whether these autonomous talks can produce a dramatic settlement. This is Seo Seung-taek for Yonhap News TV at the Gyeonggi Provincial Labor Office. Yonhap News TV story inquiries and tips: KakaoTalk/LINE jebo23; Seo Seung-taek (taxi226@yna.co.kr)