The first full-scale strike by the Samsung Biologics (207940.KS) labor union entered its third day on Saturday.
According to the Samsung Biologics branch of the Samsung Group Supra-Corporate Labor Union, the union began its full-scale strike on May 1, Labor Day, and has continued the walkout through Saturday. The strike is expected to continue for two more days, through May 5 as planned.
The union said about 2,800 of its 4,000 members are participating in the strike. That represents more than half of Samsung Biologics' 5,455 employees. The strike is being conducted without separate collective action, with workers taking annual leave and declining to work on holidays.
The company estimates that the five-day full-scale strike will cause at least 640 billion won ($470 million) in damages as some production processes come to a halt. That is about half of the company's first-quarter revenue of 1.2571 trillion won and exceeds its operating profit of 580.8 billion won for the same period.
Even the partial strike by about 60 union members from April 28 to 30, which preceded this month's full-scale walkout, halted some production processes. The company said workers in the material-handling department participated in that strike, making production disruptions inevitable as raw materials were not supplied on time.
The company estimated that the three-day partial strike alone halted production of anticancer drugs and HIV treatments, resulting in losses of about 150 billion won.
In a statement issued the previous day, the union said, "The amount required to fully accept 100 percent of the union's major demands is smaller than the loss amount." The union added, "A management team running the company normally should not just complain about severe tangible and intangible damages but should have come to the negotiating table with additional revised proposals."
The strike began after labor and management failed to find common ground on wage increases and incentive payments. The union has demanded a 30 million won incentive payment per worker, an average 14 percent wage increase, and a performance bonus equivalent to 20 percent of operating profit. The company has been reluctant to accept the demands and has proposed a 6.2 percent wage increase.
Thirteen rounds of negotiations were held from December last year through March, but labor and management ultimately failed to narrow their differences, leading the union to strike. This is the first strike by the Samsung Biologics union since the company was founded in 2011.
Labor and management at Samsung Biologics are scheduled to return to the negotiating table the following day under mediation by the Central Regional Employment and Labor Office, but whether they will reach an agreement remains uncertain.
Through months of previous negotiations and the three days of strikes this month, labor and management have only confirmed their differences. The company issued a statement around 7 p.m. on May 1, the first day of the strike, saying the union's demands were "realistically difficult to accept, which has made negotiations difficult." About two hours later, the union issued its own statement, countering that "the essence of the problem is not that the union's demands were excessive." The union added, "The company failed to prepare a proposal that union members could accept over the course of more than a month, and despite knowing the potential for losses from the strike, it failed at substantive negotiations and emergency response."
The union has defined this strike as its "first general strike," raising the possibility of a second strike if no agreement is reached. The union has said it is considering additional strikes.
