The launch of the "Hynix Integrated Labor Union," which will encompass full-time (production) and technical/office workers at SK hynix, is reportedly imminent. The integrated union aims to secure a majority-union position by recruiting about 18,000 members, more than half of all employees.
According to the industry on the 12th, membership of the integrated union reportedly surpassed 1,250 that day. The integrated union's preparatory committee filed a union establishment application on the 8th and signaled a formal launch that day.
For now, before a formal Chairperson and executive team are formed, the integrated union is being operated as a temporary organization created by members, in the form of a "Integrated Establishment TF." SK hynix has a multiple-union system in which three existing unions—covering full-time workers in Icheon and Cheongju and technical/office staff—each negotiate with management separately. The integrated union side is said to have pushed for the establishment of an integrated union out of the view that negotiation power has been dispersed as member demands are divided by job category and region.
The first goal set by the Integrated Union TF is to secure a majority union. Out of SK hynix's approximately 35,000 total members, the plan is to bring about 18,000 in as union members. It says the top priority will be to create a majority union by uniting members' opinions across job categories and regions. It is also putting forward as a founding purpose the plan to build a union in which all members, not just delegates, have equal voting rights and make decisions directly.
It is also pursuing an independent union that does not join higher-level bodies such as the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) or the Federation of Korean Trade Unions. It has also reportedly drawn up plans to disclose negotiations and minutes with specific figures, and to establish rules allowing impeachment if the Chairperson or the executive team engages in political activity in the union's name.
The method of paying performance bonuses is also a key issue. The Integrated Union TF's position is that, on the premise of long-term application, changing the agreed method of paying the profit-sharing (PS) bonus to stock constitutes a disadvantageous change to workplace rules for employees, and that if collective consent is required, it will respond through the relevant procedures.
Samsung Electronics' largest union—the Samsung Group supra-enterprise labor union's Samsung Electronics chapter (supra-enterprise union)—and SK hynix's integrated union are reviewing ways to unite on key labor issues going forward. Supra-enterprise union Chairperson Choi Seung-ho said in a notice to members, "Last year, the SK hynix Cheongju union also received help from the supra-enterprise union, so we plan to review issuing joint statements on the major issues currently at hand."
SK hynix and the existing unions reportedly held a sixth round of talks from the previous day into the early hours that day. The integrated union side plans to take part in this year's talks by observing negotiations, requesting disclosure of progress, or conveying member opinions if direct participation in talks is difficult.