Samsung Elec's Pyeongtaek campus - protest instead of celebration of chip boom

PYEONGTAEK, April 23 (AJP) -The usual soundtrack of the Samsung Electronics Pyeongtaek Campus—the low, constant hum of fabrication lines—was drowned out Thursday by a different cadence: tens of thousands of workers chanting in lockstep, their placards snapping in the wind as a bonus fight spilled into the open. 

At 2 p.m., the newly ascendant Samsung Electronics Enterprise Union—now the company’s first majority union—filled the forecourt with an estimated 40,000 members, a sea of dark jackets punctuated by white placards: “Change it transparently” and “Abolish the cap.” The slogans rose and fell in waves, each chant snapping into unison under the emcee’s cadence. 

 

 

From atop a crane, union chairman Choi Seung-ho delivered a speech overlooking the tightly packed crowd, underscoring the union’s sharpened leverage after securing legal worker representative status on April 15 with around 74,000 members.

The union warned it would launch a general strike from May 21 to June 7 if negotiations fail.

 

Earlier in the day, a small counter-protest by the Korea Shareholder Movement Headquarters drew just four participants, who argued that shareholders oppose what they called excessive bonus demands and potential risks to the semiconductor operation. 
 

   

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