By Kwanwoo Jun


Samsung Electronics unionized workers have decided to launch an indefinite strike in South Korea, pressing harder for their demands around wages and work conditions.

The National Samsung Electronics Union's decision came on Wednesday, the final day of a three-day walkout that it said failed to bring management back to the negotiating table.

The about 30,000-member union, which accounts for nearly a quarter of the company's workforce, said that about 6,500 workers have been on strike across the country since Monday.

Samsung, the world's largest maker of memory chips and smartphones, has reported no immediate disruptions to production.

The union said in a statement Wednesday that management's unwillingness to talk to union leaders has led to an "indefinite general strike" and that prolonged industrial action would make "management eventually come to the negotiating table." The union urged union members to not return to work until it reverses its decision.

Samsung's management and union leaders have been in on-again, off-again wage negotiations since January, but have failed to work out an agreement.

Among union demands were an extra one-day leave to mark the union's foundation day, an average 3.5% wage increase for all union members and a change to what the union calls unfair Samsung's current bonus pay system.


Write to Kwanwoo Jun at kwanwoo.jun@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-09-24 2212ET