Chennai:

The strike of Samsung India workers at the company Electronics Plants in Tamil Nadu entered its 19th day today with the company ensuring them that it would consider their demands, including revision of wages, if they end the protest and return to work. However, with the workers rallying around Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), the company has made it clear that it will not recognise workers’ union.

About 1,000 of the total 1,750 employee are on strike in Kancheepuram district pressing for various demands including better pay packages and working conditions.

“In Tamil Nadu, no law mandates recognition of the Union. It is the company’s discretion. The Union is not registered, so the question doesn’t arise,” Anand Gopalan, the company’s legal counsel told NDTV.

As far the revision of wages are considered, Samsung claims that it already pays its workers well- above the minimum wages- prescribed by the state government. i.e. 1.8 times the salary of workers with other companies in the neighbourhood.

“Let them end the strike and come. We are willing to consider the pay revision demand. They want revision of pay as a pre condition to end strike”, Mr Gopalan said.

He added “We are fully compliant. Not a single action has been taken against the company. We are non vindictive “.

“The management has already indicated that all the issues can be resolved by discussions and has made various harmonious attempts to resolve differences and for your report to duty,” Samsung has said in a statement.

Other Demands Of Workers

Other key demands of workers include no mandatory overtime work on a regular basis and a eight-hour shift ,besides equal pay for equal work. Denying the allegations of overtime, the electronics major says this can’t be the ground for a strike and there are mechanisms to address these issues.

The strike ahead of the festive season, sources say, had initially hit the production of Samsung appliances by 50 percent. But the company had quickly roped in staff from the logistics wing besides contractual workers which kept the impact minimal, sources said.

Last week, the company also issued a show cause notice to protesting workers. It asked its workers-those who were forced to participate in the strike and prevented from returning to work-to call on the helpline number- but that didn’t have a major impact.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government has also intervened. On Thursday, Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya wrote to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, urging swift resolution of the workers’ strike. The minister urged the state government to intervene for an early and amicable resolution for maintaining positive manufacturing sector ecosystem, reported news agency PTI.

“We are holding talks with the unions and the management. We are hopeful of resolving this soon,” Tamil Nadu Labour Minister C V Ganesan had told NDTV.

The strike has come as an embarrassment for the ruling DMK that is on an overdrive to draw investments to project Tamil Nadu as a manufacturing hub. Recently, M K Stalin returned from the US drawing investment commitments for Rs 7000 crore.

Members of the National Samsung Electronics Union gather during a rally as they began a three-day general strike outside of Samsung Electronics’ Hwaseong campus in Hwaseong, South Korea, Monday, July 8, 2024. (Hong Ki-won/Yonhap via AP)
| Photo Credit: AP

A workers’ union at tech giant Samsung Electronics in South Korea said on Wednesday it would continue to strike indefinitely, stepping up its campaign for better pay and benefits.

The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU), whose roughly 30,000 members make up almost a quarter of the firm’s South Korean workforce, said it has decided to continue striking because management has shown no indication of holding talks after a strike that started on Monday.

“We haven’t spoken to management since we started the strike on Monday,” said Lee Hyun-kuk, the union’s vice president.

The union said it would extend the strike initially planned to last three days through Wednesday. Lee told Reuters that the union found its strike has disrupted production on certain chip lines such as with equipment running more slowly.

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Samsung previously said the strike has caused no disruption to production. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

The union is becoming more vocal and seeking to be treated as an equal partner, adding to challenges at the world’s biggest memory chipmaker which is struggling to navigate competition in chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

Lee said about 6,500 workers have been participating in the strike and that the union will encourage more members to join.

Union officials have disputed reports of low participation, telling Reuters that the five-year-old body did not have enough time to educate members about the labour issues. The union held a training session on Tuesday and will conduct another on Wednesday.

Analysts said it would be difficult to verify whether the strike has disrupted production unless the union provides details of wafers and processes.

The union said it has revised demands to include a 3.5% increase in base salary and, instead of an extra day’s annual leave, a day off to mark the union’s founding. Lee said the management previously offered a 3% rise in base salary but the union wants 3.5% to better reflect inflation.

Samsung’s share price was down 0.1% versus a 0.2% decline in the benchmark KOSPI as at 0139 GMT.