Approximately four weeks after unionized Samsung workers in South Korea went on strike indefinitely - the first-ever walkout at the company - the union instructed members back to return to work from Monday.

The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) revealed its decision to make "a tactical transition" in the strike on its
YouTube account [VIDEO] late last week.

"You have to return," declared union leaders.

"We had intensive negotiations, but unfortunately, they broke down," added NSEU representatives.

Instead of carrying on with what was intended to be an indefinite strike that would instil regret in company leadership and "a clear line production disruption," NSEU stated it will rely on walkout blitzes and compliance actions.

The change is expected to relieve the financial impact members experienced while on strike.

NSEU has demanded a 5.6 percent basic pay raise for its 31,000 members. Samsung has offered 5.1 percent.

The union also wants a guaranteed day off on the anniversary of the union's founding day, and compensation for those involved in the strike who lost wages.

"We are continuing to communicate sincerely with the union in order to bring the strike to an early end," promised executive VP, Memory, Jaejune Kim on the manufacturing giant's Q2 2024 earnings call.

"Despite the strike, we have had no issues in responding to customer demand," added Kim.

The chaebol reported an increase in sales and huge jump in operating profit thanks to surging demand for memory. Execs expect more good times ahead thanks to the AI boom.

The company also today announced it has commenced mass production of LPDDR5X DRAM packages for On-Device AI.

Samsung claims its packages are the thinnest on the market and use 12 nm-class LPDDR DRAM in a four-stack structure that means the resulting device’s thickness has been reduced by approximately 9 percent compared to its previous generation product. Heat resistance is also improved by “about 21.2 percent”. The memory ships in 12GB and 16GB variants.

Union action appears not to have derailed production of the memory, and Samsung also announced it is already developing six-layer 24GB and eight-layer 32GB modules for future devices.

NSEU, meanwhile, held a press conference outside of Samsung chairman Lee Jae-yong's home the same day it told employees that they would be heading back to work.

"It's time for chairman Lee to come forward and clarify his position to resolve the general strike," declared the union. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/08/06/samsung_union_rto/