Samsung’s Union Battle and the Crisis Facing Korean Labor
While the South Korean media has been focused on a snap presidential election, an important scandal has emerged involving the union that represents Samsung workers. It’s a cautionary tale about the difficulties facing organized labor in South Korea.
Members of the National Samsung Electronics Union stage a rally as they begin a strike outside the company’s factory in Hwaseong, South Korea on July 8, 2024. (Jung Yeon-je / AFP via Getty Images)
Last year saw a historic strike by workers at Samsung, the Korean electronics firm with a global footprint. Yet the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) that organized the strike has since stumbled over an old practice in South Korea’s labor movement — one often used to drive a wedge between the leadership and the rank-and-file members.
The strike last July by a union with more than thirty thousand members that had only formed in 2019 drew attention from both corporations and organized labor worldwide. It broke new ground in a number of significant ways.
Not only was it the first strike by workers at Samsung, a company that had enforced a strict no-union policy for over forty years. It was also the first strike over pay transparency concerning a controversial incentive metric and the first major strike in the global chip industry, where rapid expansion has been coming at the expense of workplace safety.
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