SEOUL — Unionized workers at Samsung Biologics began a five-day general strike Friday, marking the first labor strike at the Samsung Group biotech unit since its founding in 2011.
The union is demanding higher wages and expanded performance-based compensation. Samsung Biologics said it is deploying available personnel to limit disruption, but acknowledged that some operational impact may be unavoidable.
The company estimated that a full-scale strike could cause losses of more than 640 billion won, or about $433 million, equal to roughly half of its first-quarter sales of 1.26 trillion won.
In a message to employees, President and CEO John Rim urged workers to carefully consider whether to join the strike, warning that it could lead to irreversible losses for both the company and employees.
“The company will continue sincere dialogue with the union to help stabilize labor-management relations and build a workplace based on mutual trust and respect,” Rim said.
The union is seeking a 14% increase in both base pay and performance-related compensation, a one-time cash incentive of 30 million won per worker and bonuses equal to 20% of annual operating profit. Samsung Biologics has offered a combined 6.2% increase in base and performance pay.
The two sides have held 13 rounds of negotiations between December and March but have failed to resolve major differences.
Samsung Biologics filed for a court injunction last month to block the planned strike. A court partially granted the request, restricting labor action across three of the company’s nine production stages while allowing strike activity in the remaining six. The company has appealed the ruling.
In a statement Friday, the union said the strike was not only about wages but also reflected what it described as management’s failure in decision-making.
“The union has been calling for substantive negotiations for more than a month since (the government’s) earlier mediation efforts broke down, but the company has responded with legal pressure, including injunctions and warning messages, rather than presenting reasonable proposals,” the union said.
Industry officials warned that disruption at any stage of the production process could affect product quality, noting that global regulators such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration emphasize process integrity as a core requirement for biopharmaceutical manufacturing.
Samsung Biologics and the union are scheduled to meet again Monday under mediation by a regional labor office of South Korea’s labor ministry to discuss the path for future negotiations. (Source: IANS)
