Samsung Electronics' main South Korea union to go on indefinite strike |...

Samsung Electronics' main South Korea union to go on indefinite strike | The World

ABC News (Australia)

2.06M subscribers

Subscribed

82

Share

ABC is an Australian public broadcast service. Wikipedia 

5,607 views  Jul 10, 2024  #ABCNews #ABCNewsAustralia

Thousands of Samsung workers in South Korea have gone on strike after months-long negotiations stalled. It’s a rare show of collective action at the world’s largest memory chip maker, which resisted its employees unionising for almost 50 years. Vladimir Tikhonov, Professor of Korean Studies at the University of Oslo tells The World’s Beverley O’Connor that it’s a “landmark” moment in South Korea and that workers were hoping that the disruption to production lines would make their employers listen to their demands.

===

0:04 / 7:32

Transcript

0:00

it is very unusual uh Samsung

0:02

Electronics is a company that has its

0:04

history since

0:06

1969 and such a strike action is

0:10

unprecedented it just has never happened

0:13

before very unusual it's a landmark in

0:16

the history of South Korean

0:18

unionism and of course you know they

0:21

weren't really allowed to to strongly

0:23

unionized why have they been able to

0:26

Galvanize this kind of support in recent

0:29

times

0:31

uh in South Korea recently unionization

0:34

rate has been rising 10 years ago it was

0:38

very low by Rich country standards it

0:40

was around 9% now it stands at 14% And

0:45

Its climbing up it has something to do

0:47

with the fact that South Korea has a

0:50

very strict neoliberal regime imposed on

0:53

it with lots for example of uh

0:57

nonpermanent labor force around 38 % of

1:00

all workers are nonpermanent then there

1:03

there are very long working hours

1:06

punishing militarized labor discipline

1:10

and all these pushes workers to fight

1:12

back so recently we had a sort of

1:15

Revival of militant unionism in South

1:18

Korea and this strike is one expression

1:22

of that Trend they have though faced a

1:25

couple of issues with the company take

1:27

us through some of their grievances

1:30

absolutely grievances are many and they

1:33

include seriously poor occupational

1:37

safety health hazards there were cases

1:41

of leukemia the white blood disease at

1:44

Samsung electronics and more than 100

1:47

workers died because of the reasons

1:50

which according to their lawyers might

1:53

have been related to occupational safety

1:56

most cases the company had to recognize

2:00

the damage and paid the compensation

2:03

thus recognizing the safet was indeed

2:06

poor so there are very real grievances

2:09

beyond the

2:10

strike we know of course that

2:13

negotiations failed which is why they

2:15

are on strike so what sort of response

2:17

are we starting to see from the

2:19

company well so far they are telling the

2:23

world that nothing bad happens that the

2:26

semiconductors are being produced as

2:28

usual businesses as usual and they try

2:32

always to emphasize the fact that only

2:35

5% of Samsung Electronics Workforce are

2:37

on strike which is true however those 5%

2:41

are mostly the workers at the key

2:43

positions on the lines where the

2:46

semiconductors are being produced and

2:49

semiconductors is for now that South

2:51

Korea's most important export and that's

2:54

kashow for Sam song so according to the

2:57

union if you believe it it looks as if

3:00

their production line has been affected

3:03

there are problems on the production

3:05

line so Union believes that the company

3:08

will be forced to negotiate in the end

3:11

yeah let's turn now to this sort of long

3:15

running dispute that uh young doctors

3:19

have had with the government this week

3:22

the government backed down on plans to

3:24

actually cancel the licenses of these

3:26

striking doctors where are we at with

3:29

this dispute

3:31

well it appears as if in this in the

3:34

case of striking doctors most likely the

3:37

government will attempt a sort of

3:39

compromise with them the thing is that

3:42

doctors are not exactly considered

3:44

workers in South Korea their average

3:47

income is around six times higher than

3:49

the average wage in South Korean

3:52

manufacturing so they are supposed to be

3:54

rich people the reason why they strike

3:57

they don't want the government to

3:59

increase is their enrollment at the

4:02

medical faculties of South Korean

4:04

universities since they don't want too

4:05

many competitors and they want to keep

4:08

their incomes high as they are now so

4:10

it's a very privileged sector of South

4:12

Korean society and that is exactly the

4:14

reason why government treats them so

4:17

mildly when the workers strike believe

4:19

me South Korean government can be much

4:22

much harsher than that that is

4:23

interesting I did understand though that

4:25

there was something of an over supply of

4:28

of doctors to the point of actually

4:31

raising registrations could have caused

4:33

a problem down the

4:35

line that's also true in fact uh the

4:38

number of doctors per 100,000 people in

4:41

South Korea is relatively low compared

4:44

with other Rich industrialized societies

4:46

so in case the licensed are cancelled

4:48

and M yes most likely the system would

4:52

have been seriously affected but the POS

4:56

of doctors the scarcity of doctors is

4:58

exactly why they're so well PID

5:00

and the doctors want to have it exactly

5:02

this way that's why they St keep it keep

5:04

it as it is but it looks like it may be

5:06

over soon tell me what did you make of

5:08

these comments from a South Korean

5:10

politician that blamed the rising rate

5:12

of suicide among men which is a problem

5:16

but he's blaming it on

5:18

women well you have extreme right

5:22

Wingers blaming everything on whom they

5:24

usually blame women and foreigners a

5:27

foreigners in South Korea are not as

5:29

many as many Western societies around

5:32

45% of South Korea's total population

5:35

are of foreign origion so if you don't

5:37

have enough foreigners you blame women

5:39

that's very obvious tactic I mean why

5:43

not it's our

5:45

problem well but well you don't take

5:48

this rubbish seriously of course the

5:50

problems with suicides really do exist

5:53

in South Korea they have almost as many

5:55

suicides as much poorer countries than

5:58

them like Lithuania for example Belarus

6:01

but this has very little to do with

6:04

gender problems it has something to do

6:07

with enormous pressures imposed by what

6:10

I have mentioned neoliberal labor regime

6:13

and also strict academic discipline you

6:15

have for example the Char category of

6:19

sonj pigan chal suicides literally

6:23

caused by pessimism over my grades you

6:27

don't get good enough grades you kill

6:28

yourself so you have reasons like this

6:31

and of course a general Trend to

6:35

destabilize walking walking environment

6:38

by imposing short-term contracts it

6:41

destabilizes also people's psychology if

6:44

you are on half a year onee contract

6:47

it's not easy to live comfortable life

6:49

so it's new obviously not women yeah no

6:53

exactly and then I mean the women are

6:55

probably under even more pressure in

6:57

many many ways yes it's it's it's an INT

6:59

tensely uh driven uh culture that I

7:02

think is as you point out um some

7:05

problems that are emerging really great

7:07

to have you on thanks so much thank you

7:10

so much for w me thanks bye bye bye