Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) Vice Chairman and CEO Jun Young-hyun and other executives from the company's Device Solutions (DS) division have departed for the Pyeongtaek Campus to meet with Choi Seung-ho, head of the Samsung Electronics chapter of the National Samsung Electronics Union.
In an official letter sent to the union earlier in the day, the executives said, "We regard the union as one family and a community sharing the same destiny, and we will engage in dialogue with an open attitude and without preconditions." They added, "Considering the concerns of the public and the national economy, we ask you to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible."
After sending the letter in the morning, the DS division's senior management convened all team leaders at the executive level (vice president and above) of the Memory Business Division to discuss responses to the general strike, before departing for the Pyeongtaek Campus at around 2 p.m.
Lee Kyu-yeon, the Presidential Office's senior secretary for public relations, said Wednesday that "implementing emergency arbitration in the event of a Samsung Electronics union general strike is not yet at a stage where it can be decided," adding, "We hope the labor-management negotiations will conclude well."
Union members reacted with comments such as "It looks like the government will invoke emergency arbitration," "The moment they use it, we all go down together," and "After all this, do they expect us to work normally?"
