The small business community said that the tentative agreement on wage talks between labor and management at Samsung Electronics is "news like a welcome rain after a long drought for neighborhood shopping districts."
The Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME) issued a statement on the 21st and said, "With the conclusion of the labor-management negotiations at Samsung Electronics, 7.9 million small business owners express deep relief and a warm welcome."
It added, "The commercial areas behind semiconductor industrial complexes such as the Samsung Electronics campuses in Pyeongtaek, Hwaseong, and Yongin are a core pillar of the local economy, where numerous partner companies and lodging, food service, and wholesale and retail businesses are tightly connected," and noted, "If a general strike had materialized, it would have brought not only management difficulties for small and midsize companies in materials, parts, and equipment, but also a fatal 'sales cliff' and 'domino blow' to neighborhood shopping districts that are already frozen."
It continued, "With the halt to extreme industrial action, small business owners in neighborhood districts across Gyeonggi Province, including Pyeongtaek, and nationwide can finally focus on their livelihoods," and assessed, "This withdrawal of the strike carries great significance in that it goes beyond simply patching up a conflict at a single company, showing that labor and management at a large company recognized their ripple effects on local small business owners and the ordinary economy and chose the value of 'co-prosperity.'"
It also said, "A crisis can be overcome not alone but by joining forces," and added, "Now is not the time to bring the economy to a halt by wielding a strike as a weapon, but a time when corporations, workers, and small business owners must join hands and pool their strength to restore the livelihood economy."
Earlier, labor and management at Samsung Electronics reached a tentative agreement a day before the strike to create a special bonus for the semiconductor (DS) institutional sector that pays 10.5% of business performance entirely in treasury stock. Under the agreement, this year's bonuses for employees in the DS institutional sector are expected to reach up to about 600 million won before taxes.