More than 6,500 Samsung Electronics workers walked off the job Monday to protest and demand better pay, marking the start of the largest labor action in the South Korean conglomerate’s 50th anniversary.
Disgruntled workers and union supporters gathered in pouring rain outside one of Samsung’s largest chip factories south of Seoul. Wearing red headbands reading “total strike” and black raincoats, they chanted slogans and sang songs with raised fists. Union leaders, who conducted the first count of participants, hope the much-publicized protest will spark a three-day strike that will send a message to Korea’s largest company.
Samsung’s largest labor union has been preparing for weeks for the strike after negotiations over pay and vacation time collapsed last month. The planned action marks an escalation from a one-day strike in early June — the first in Samsung’s 55-year history. It is intended to send a message by disrupting production at one of the company’s most advanced chip facilities, union leaders say.
