A majority union at Samsung Electronics accepted the government's mediation.
The Samsung Electronics chapter of the Samsung Group supra-enterprise labor union (supra-enterprise union) said on the 8th that it will resume talks with management through a post-mediation process. Post-mediation is a system that allows the labor commission to reenter mediation with the consent of both labor and management, even when the labor commission's mediation has been suspended and the union has secured the legal right to strike.
Post-mediation at Samsung Electronics will take place from the 11th to the 12th. The supra-enterprise union, however, also said in announcing its acceptance of post-mediation that it "will make every effort to ensure there are no setbacks in preparations for a general strike."
The resumption of talks was announced after a meeting around 2 p.m. that day between Kim Do-hyung, Gyeonggi Regional Employment and Labor Office chief at the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL), and Choi Seung-ho, chairperson of the supra-enterprise union. The Samsung Electronics union has warned it will launch an 18-day general strike starting on the 21st. The meeting was arranged to encourage negotiations through dialogue between labor and management. Three unions at Samsung Electronics are scheduled to take part in the strike, and the supra-enterprise union, entrusted with bargaining and agreement-signing authority for post-mediation, led the talks as the representative.
Regarding the meeting, the supra-enterprise union said, "The Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) recognized the gravity of this matter and promised full support for collective bargaining at the government level," adding, "It strongly recommended the post-mediation process, and we took the government's active intent and repeated requests seriously." It then said, "After internal review, we decided to comply with the post-mediation process."
Choi Seung-ho, chairperson of the supra-enterprise union, said, "If the outcome does not satisfy the members, we will move to a general strike without hesitation."
Along with the supra-enterprise union, the National Samsung Electronics Labor Union and the Samsung Electronics Labor Union Donghaeng (Donghaeng union) formed a joint bargaining team in Nov. last year and have been negotiating with management on the 2026 wage and collective agreement (wage and collective deal). After talks broke down in Feb., the three unions formed a new joint struggle headquarters and held a strike vote that passed by a majority. On the 4th, the Donghaeng union announced it was leaving the joint struggle headquarters, citing "lack of communication." The Samsung Electronics joint struggle headquarters is calling for a bonus system with no cap, funded by 15% of annual operating profit.
On the 16th of last month, Samsung Electronics filed for an injunction with the Suwon District Court to ban what it called the union's illegal strike. After an additional hearing on the 13th, the court plans to decide whether to grant the injunction by the 20th at the latest, a day before the strike is set to begin.
Samsung Electronics said regarding this post-mediation, "We will engage in good-faith discussions."