A claim has been raised that half of Samsung Electronics members have joined a labor union. A union that secures more than half of all members as unionists gains a stronger legal status to negotiate with management on wages and other matters. However, for now, no single union has achieved a majority, and there are also overlapping memberships, prompting criticism that the conditions are insufficient to claim representativeness.
On the 4th, the supra-enterprise labor union's Samsung Electronics chapter said a numerical majority union had been achieved. There are currently five unions active at Samsung Electronics. As of noon that day, the supra-enterprise union argued that adding the membership counts of ▲ National Samsung Electronics Labor Union (Jeonsamno, 25,709) ▲ Samsung Electronics Companion Union (2,072) ▲ Supra-Enterprise Union (34,781) totaled 62,562, thereby achieving a majority.
However, labor circles noted that, based on this year's semiannual report, Samsung Electronics has a total of 129,524 employees (including 599 fixed-term workers), so the exact unionization rate needs to be checked later. In a notice that day, the supra-enterprise union said, "Procedures are needed to verify the number of overlapping union members," while adding, "This is a very minor issue." The supra-enterprise union also said it plans to send on the 5th official letters related to the "procedures for verifying the number of majority-union members" and the "status of employee representative," including to Samsung Electronics Chair Lee Jae-yong.
Samsung Electronics formed its first union in 2018, but there was no "majority union." With no union holding representativeness, wage negotiations were conducted separately. If multiple unions form a delegation, unite, and, through that, are recognized for having a majority of members and conclude a collective agreement with management, that agreement carries "general binding force." This means employees who are not union members are also affected by the agreement. If recognized as a majority union, it can also participate in various decision-making processes such as changes to work rules and the right to appoint worker representatives to the labor-management council. The supra-enterprise union said it "will demand treatment that at least measures up to that of competitors so that unreasonable changes to work rules for employees do not occur."