Samsung Electronics workers on strike return to work... ”We will fight for the long term”

The Samsung Electronics labor union in Korea has ended its 25-day strike and has begun returning to work. However, rather than ending the strike, the union has moved into a "long-term battle" and is now considering surprise division attacks.
The Samsung Electronics Workers' Union will continue to take action for wage negotiations through guerilla strikes and other means.
"We need to move to a struggle that reduces the economic burden on union members and continues to put pressure on the company," he said, announcing, "We ask that they return to work between now and the 5th."
He added, "Now is the time to shift to a long-term plan," and "As the final negotiations have collapsed and the strike struggle has entered a protracted phase,
"For the struggle to be successful, we need to engage in sustainable guerrilla strikes and a law-abiding struggle," he explained. As the strike enters a protracted phase, the scale of wage losses for union members is growing.
As the situation becomes increasingly tense, some within the company are of the opinion that a breakthrough is necessary. The union, which began its strike on the 8th of last month, held a three-day meeting from the 29th of last month to discuss wage increases and results with the company.
Negotiations were held on improving the wage system, but ultimately no agreement was reached. The union said, "You can return to work today, but if you decide to go on a guerrilla strike,
"People can leave even if they are working," the union said. In addition, it has announced a number of situation-specific measures, including guerrilla strikes, guidelines for responding to digital recording media re-forms, and recording and evidence collection struggles.
The company also presented a manual on how to deal with the issue. It also plans to merge with the first union, the administrative workers' union. Currently, Samsung Electronics has a total of five unions, including the National Samsung Electronics Workers' Union (the fourth union).
The union's chairman, Song Woo-mok, said, "Through the merger with the No. 1 union, the National Samsung Electronics Union will become the No. 1 union starting next Monday."
The number of members of the National Samsung Electronics Workers Union was 36,341 as of 9 a.m. on the same day.
This represents 29% of the total number of employees at NEC (approximately 125,000). The union's status as the representative negotiating union will be guaranteed until the 5th, and from the 6th, if even one union requests negotiations with the company, it will be able to negotiate on its own.
"We need to either hold separate negotiations or unify the negotiating windows again," Song said at a press conference held in front of Chairman Lee Jae-Yeong's home in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on the morning of the same day.
"Because we are the largest union, we will not lose our representative bargaining rights," he said. "We will only lose the right to strike temporarily during the period (three to four months) required to obtain new bargaining rights.
"We will resume negotiations after that," he said. The union plans to strengthen cooperation with the National Assembly, the legal profession and civic groups to make the issue a social issue and secure a dispute fund, and to further expand the scale of the strike.
He will be holding a press conference at the National Diet on the 5th.