Photo : YONHAP News
The Samsung Electronics Labor Union(SELU), the largest union at the electronics giant, has lost its status as a majority union after some 18-thousand members walked out.
As of 3 p.m. Thursday, the union was estimated to have a total of 58-thousand-270 members.
That’s roughly six-thousand short of half the total workforce, based on a total workforce estimate of some 129-thousand that was published in an annual report released late last year.
SELU had, at one time, over 76-thousand members during labor and management negotiations over a bonus dispute.
But members began to leave May 20, when a deal was struck under which a worker in Samsung’s memory business division will receive bonuses worth up to 600 million won, or around 400-thousand dollars.
That’s about 100 times more than what’s expected for workers in the mobile device and consumer electronics unit.
Observers believe the 19-point-four percent of SELU members who voted “no” to ratify the bonus deal in a six-day vote that wrapped up May 27 are the ones who left the union.
SELU has lost its majority union status only a month and a half after gaining it.