Samsung Union Workers Launch Indefinite Strike

Unionized workers at Samsung Electronics said Wednesday they would go on an indefinite strike, an escalation of a rare labor dispute that could disrupt the technology giant’s world-leading chip business.

An estimated 6,500 workers walked off the job on Monday for a planned three-day strike over pay and working conditions. The Nationwide Samsung Electronics Union decided to extend the strike after “hearing no word” from the company, according to Lee Hyun Kuk, the vice president of the union, which represents 28,000 workers, or a fifth of the Samsung’s global work force.

Samsung, South Korea’s biggest private employer, has long been the world’s largest maker of memory chips, which help computers and other electronics equipment store information. The company is also a leading manufacturer of logic chips, which make computers run, behind only Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

The union said it has been negotiating with Samsung since January over vacation days and wages.

“As the strike goes on, the management’s blood will dry out and they will eventually come to the negotiating table on their knees,” the union said in a statement.

The union said its work stoppage this week has slowed some Samsung operations and production. A Samsung representative said the strike has not affected production and it would work to avoid disruptions in the future. The company remained “committed to engaging in good faith negotiations with the union,” the representative said.

Because of the “high level of automation in the factories and the low actual need for manual labor,” the impact of the strike was expected to be minimal, said Avril Wu, a senior research vice president at TrendForce, a market research firm.

“Our research team has