It was confirmed that Chairperson Choi Seung-ho of the Samsung Group cross-enterprise labor union's Samsung Electronics chapter (the cross-enterprise union) posted a message calling the Central Labor Relations Commission's (CLRC) "union member vote" proposal "nonsense" while sharing the details in a union member community. Choi's remarks came right after labor-management post-mediation talks collapsed. The cross-enterprise union, which holds a majority, is the group leading the push to carry out a general strike.
According to the industry on the 14th, Chairperson Choi said in a union member community, "The CLRC made the 'nonsense' suggestion that even if a tentative agreement is not reached, why not put the (review plan) to a union member vote." He also said the CLRC that made such a proposal is "no good."
Choi's remarks came after the declaration of a final breakdown in post-mediation between labor and management. At the CLRC located in the Government Sejong Complex, Samsung Electronics labor and management held a second post-mediation meeting starting at 10 a.m. on the 12th and conducted discussions over 17 hours. With both sides' consent, mediation was resumed under the CLRC's arbitration, but the talks collapsed at the union's request to halt.
In the post-mediation that finally broke down on the 13th, the CLRC presented a review plan to maintain the OPI (over-performance incentive) system based on the existing economic value added (EVA) standard, while adding a special reward for the semiconductor (DS, Device Solutions) division. The special reward calls for allocating 12% of operating profit as a fund to be split 7 for division-wide and 3 by the seven major business units if the DS division achieves No. 1 in the industry in sales and operating profit.
The CLRC's review plan also partially accepted the union's demand for "institutionalization," such as continuing to apply this approach if similar levels of management performance are achieved this year and beyond. When Chairperson Choi Seung-ho rejected the review plan, the CLRC proposed in effect, "Couldn't we put it to a union member vote." In response, the industry is interpreting that the Samsung Electronics union is not taking seriously the government's efforts to reconcile labor-management differences and prevent a strike.
The Samsung Electronics union has announced it will start a general strike on the 21st, demanding that incentives be paid using 15% of operating profit as the funding source and that the cap be abolished and institutionalized. The management side, meanwhile, says institutionalizing the incentive system is effectively impossible.