New Delhi

Samsung Electronics workers in South Korea began a three-day strike on Monday, calling for improvements in pay and working conditions.

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The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU), which represents some 30,000, or close to 25%, of the company's employees in South Korea, said.

This is the second time within the year that the union comes to the streets. 

The previous month, it coordinated an annual leave in staging a mass walkout, yet the Samsung remains adamant that this had no effect on the business.

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There is also small possibility for this three-day strike to create large-scale disruption in production as low participation and automation have this as a plausible outcome.

"Some 6,540 workers will be on strike during the week, though those controlling automated parts of production lines could prevent serious disruptions," the union said.

On the other hand, Union President Son Woo-Mok explained that the involvement rate was still quite good, noting that the union was young and had to educate its members on their rights.

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Lee Hyun-Kuk, the vice president of the union, also warned that they were prepared to actually escalate the strikes unless they get what they want from Samsung.

One of the key demands is related to the revision of the bonus system.

According to union officials, the bonuses of blue-collar workers have been calculated differently from the company executives. T

hey argue that this is what they are fighting for in the new bonus system.

One young engineer, a new hire this year, said he knew only too well what it was like to be on the losing end of the "opaque" bonus system.

Since Samsung pledged, in 2020, not to discourage organized labour, membership in NSEU has grown.

The demand by the union comes at a very fateful moment when Samsung seems to be losing ground in the market for chips used in artificial intelligence.

The stock performance of Samsung has been defeated by its rival SK Hynix, which according to the union, is partly due to its slow development in high bandwidth memory chips that are imperative in AI processors.

But Samsung predicted a hefty jump in its second-quarter operating profit, struck by the rebound in its chip prices amid an AI boom. Its shares were marginally higher Monday but earlier hit their best level since January 2021.

(With inputs from Reuters)