Choi Seung-ho, head of the Samsung Electronics chapter of the cross-enterprise union, arrives at a post-mediation meeting at the National Labor Relations Commission at Government Complex Sejong on a recent morning. [Newsis]
Choi Seung-ho, head of the Samsung Electronics chapter of the cross-enterprise union, arrives at a post-mediation meeting at the National Labor Relations Commission at Government Complex Sejong on a recent morning. [Newsis]

The Samsung Electronics chapter of the cross-enterprise union — the chipmaker's largest labor organization — said Monday that company representatives had privately told the union that management found Samsung's plan burdensome. The plan calls for roughly 2,655 trillion won ($1.76 trillion) in domestic investment as part of the government's "mega project," which includes building a second semiconductor fabrication plant in Gwangju. The union said the pace of the project needs to be reined in, and announced it would put the mega project on the agenda for next year's collective bargaining under the revised labor union act, commonly known as the Yellow Envelope Law.

The cross-enterprise union made the remarks Monday in a statement titled "We again ask the government regarding the mega project," and renewed its call for tripartite consultations among labor, management and the government.

The union said a weekend survey of its members found that 84 percent opposed the Honam semiconductor project when factoring in concerns about job reassignments, working conditions and compensation.

The union also said that in two separate meetings with management, company representatives indicated that executives found the project burdensome and expressed a negative view of it. "If neither the workers who would staff it nor the company that would fund it can be confident in the plan, what is needed now is not speed but a process of building trust," the union said.

The union also said Samsung Electronics CEO Jeon Young-hyun had publicly voiced concern about the current power supply plan, urging the government to actively pursue nuclear power plant expansion and power purchase agreements, and to ensure that LNG cogeneration projects move forward. "If the chief executive has to publicly ask for supplementary measures, it means the plan still needs more preparation," the union said.

The union said it would raise the mega project in next year's bargaining talks. Under the revised Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act — enacted by the ruling party — business decisions that affect union members' working conditions are now subject to collective bargaining, the union said, adding that a project involving the working arrangements of tens of thousands of employees is a prime example. "This task, too, must be pursued through dialogue with the union," it said. The union's position is that investment decisions and other management judgments bearing on workers' conditions require mandatory consultation with labor.

The union made two requests of the government. It said the government was simultaneously pushing a four-and-a-half-day workweek while also proposing to lift the 52-hour weekly cap in the name of the mega project, and that workers in the semiconductor industry had been left out of the conversation entirely. "We ask for a consistent standard in labor policy," the union said.

The union also called on the government to respond to its proposal for a tripartite consultative forum and said it hoped constructive dialogue would follow. "Protecting the future of Korea's semiconductor industry means preparing steadily and methodically, with a long view rather than in haste," it added.


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