Thousands of unionized workers at Samsung Electronics in South Korea, who had declared an indefinite strike last month, had returned to work by Monday after failing to win concessions from the global tech giant.
It was the first unionized action in the decades-long history of Samsung, one of the world’s biggest makers of computer chips. But the striking employees, numbering roughly 6,500 or so, accounted for only a fraction of union membership and a sliver of the company’s total work force. Most of them were back at work by Monday, according to Lee Hyun Kuk, the vice president of the Nationwide Samsung Electronics Union.
For months, the union and the company have failed to reach an agreement on wages, bonuses and vacation days for the workers. In June, union members went on a single-day strike as a warning before starting the indefinite walkout in July. All along, Samsung emphasized that the labor action would not disrupt its operations, a position it reiterated last week.
But the financial burden of a prolonged, unpaid strike on employees forced union leaders to issue a back-to-work order last week. The union has a strike fund of about 80 million won, or roughly $60,000, but it has not disclosed if it has spent any of those funds.
“Twenty-five days into the strike, and we have nothing in our hands yet,” Son Woo-mok, the president of the union, told members on Thursday. “I feel responsibility as the union leader that we haven’t brought about any results to the union members who have been participating in the strike while going without pay.”
The union, which has more than 31,000 members, plans to hold guerrilla strikes, or blitz walkouts, but didn’t disclose the frequency or number of planned strikes. “This is not a loss, but a change of tactics,” Mr. Son said.
Union leaders last week held a news conference outside Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s house in Seoul, imploring him to take action. But Mr. Lee was in Paris, meeting with other business leaders who were also attending the Olympics.
Last month, Samsung released the latest lineup of its electronic devices — including the Galaxy Fold 6 phone and smartwatches — as scheduled. The conglomerate’s electronics division employs about 260,000 people worldwide.