Choi Seung-ho, Chairperson of the Samsung Group supra-enterprise labor union's Samsung Electronics chapter (the supra-enterprise union), said on the 12th, the final day of post-mediation between labor and management, "Whether we reach an agreement or break down, we will do our best." The supra-enterprise union is a group within Samsung Electronics, which has multiple unions, that has secured more than half of the members as unionized workers, and it is leading the current post-mediation talks.
Samsung Electronics labor and management held a second post-mediation meeting at 10 a.m. on the 12th at the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) in the Government Sejong Complex. The day before, the two sides held the first post-mediation meeting at the same location from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., but failed to reach an agreement.
Post-mediation is a mediation conducted again by mutual consent of labor and management to resolve a labor dispute after mediation has ended, with the NLRC acting as mediator to facilitate bargaining. If a mediation plan is produced through post-mediation, it has the same legal effect as a collective agreement. If labor and management agree to the mediation plan derived from this second post-mediation, the second strike since the founding of Samsung Electronics can be avoided.
However, the union plans to launch a general strike starting on the 21st if the final post-mediation breaks down on this day. The union is demanding the institutionalization of abolishing the cap on performance bonuses paid from a fund equivalent to 15% of operating profit. In contrast, management is said to hold the position that institutionalizing performance bonuses is virtually impossible.
Before attending the post-mediation meeting that day, Chairperson Choi met with reporters and said, "We are working with only one goal in mind: to deliver results that our members can be satisfied with." Choi added, "The supra-enterprise union is a new union whose collective agreement was concluded last year, and only two people were able to work last year. In the semiconductor (DS) institutional sector, I worked alone, and within six months we became the majority union," saying, "I am now the representative of Samsung Electronics employees and the representative of the union."
Executive Vice President Kim Hyeong-ro, the chief negotiator for management, entered the meeting room without answering any questions from reporters.