SAMSUNG CLAIMS PRODUCTION NOT AFFECTED AS STRIKE ENTERS DAY TWO

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South Korean tech giant Samsung said Tuesday that production was not being disrupted despite a three-day general strike by thousands of workers.

As part of an ongoing dispute over compensation and benefits, the National Samsung Electronic Union reported that more than 5,000 of its workers ceased working on Monday.

Over 30,000 workers, or more than 5% of the entire workforce of the corporation, are members of the union.

“There has been no disruption to production,” local media quoted Samsung as saying.

Senior union member Park Seol informed AFP on Tuesday that manufacturing was being impacted.

He continued, “But more importantly, we want the company to hear our voice and realize how desperate we are. We aren’t just trying to affect their production line.”

Since January, the union and management have been unable to resolve their differences over benefits, and the company’s offer of a 5.1% wage increase was turned down.

Samsung Electronics stated in a regulatory filing last week that it anticipated operational profits for the months of April through June to reach 10.4 trillion won ($7.54 billion), up 1,452.2 percent from 670 billion won the previous year.

Samsung stated that sales are anticipated to increase 23.3% to 74 trillion won.

Large portions of the world’s output of high-end chips are produced by Samsung Electronics, the largest memory chip manufacturer in the world.