Concerns Mount Across Industry and Beyond as Samsung Biologics Launches Its First Full Strike: "First Since Its Founding"

\r\n
[Financial News] The Samsung Biologics labor union went on a full strike on Labor Day, the 1st, raising concerns across the industry and beyond. It is the first strike since the company was founded in 2011.
According to the Samsung Group-wide Samsung Biologics Branch, the union will continue the full strike from today through the 5th.
The union has about 4,000 members, accounting for 73% of Samsung Biologics' 5,455 employees as of last year. More than 2,000 of them, or over half the membership, are reported to have said they will take part in the full strike.
However, the company said it is difficult to determine the exact number of strikers because the union chose a strike method in which members take annual leave and do not report to work. The period from the 1st to the 5th includes Labor Day, Children's Day, and the weekend, making it a long holiday break in which employees can avoid working on public holidays and take one day of leave on the 4th to rest for five days.
The union will not hold any separate collective action during the strike period.
Samsung Biologics management and labor held 13 rounds of talks from December last year through March, but they ultimately failed to narrow their differences.
On the morning of the previous day, CEO John Rim held a Town hall meeting and apologized directly to employees. He promised to strengthen fairness in the personnel system, expand hiring, and reach a smooth agreement on wages and collective bargaining. But it was not enough to stop the full strike. Later that afternoon, the two sides met again with mediation from the Jungbu Regional Employment and Labor Office, but they still failed to reach an agreement.
The union had previously demanded that the company restore fair personnel principles and close the wage gap within the Samsung Group. Specifically, it called for a 30 million won incentive payment per employee, an average wage increase of 14%, and a 20% share of operating profit as performance bonuses. The company, meanwhile, has proposed a 6.2% wage increase.
Earlier, the court restricted strikes in three of the nine processes, including final-stage work to prevent drug deterioration and spoilage. As a result, workers in the relevant departments are not taking part in the strike.
Samsung Biologics, however, says that not only those three processes but every stage, including cell thawing and cultivation, must be controlled without error in order to produce biopharmaceuticals.
If even one process is disrupted, the risk of drug spoilage rises sharply. For that reason, the biopharmaceutical industry discards all output in such cases, regardless of whether there is a quality defect.
Before this full strike, the union also staged a partial strike from the 28th to the 30th of last month. About 60 union members from the materials subdivision took part.
The union has described the full strike, which runs through the 5th, as its "first general strike." As a result, observers expect that if labor and management still fail to reach an agreement after this action, the union could launch another strike.
In response to a related question, the union said, "We are considering it."
rsunjun@fnnews.com Yuseon Jun Reporter