[Editorial] Unions at Samsung

Samsung Group’s virtual absence of working trade union gives the 200,000 employees at its 78 subsidiaries both pride and embarrassment. As the nation’s labor movement entered a new phase with the legalizing of multiple unions at a single workplace, some change may be expected at Samsung. But what has so far happened at Korea’s number one conglomerate disappoints many unionists.

A labor union at Samsung Everland, the amusement park operator which serves as a de facto holding company for the business group, registered with the authorities last week. It started with four members, although that is not unusual at Samsung subsidiaries.

Samsung does have unions, 10 of them in nine workplaces. Unions at four companies, including Samsung Life Insurance and Samsung Fine Chemicals, have existed since before they were merged into the group; Samsung Securities has two unions resulting from two mergers. Samsung Heavy Industries, Hotel Shilla, Eswon and Everland have unions with memberships ranging from two to 37. Of the total 39,000 employees at the nine subsidiaries, 3,400 have joined unions. They account for 1.7 percent of the entire workforce of Samsung Group.

How Samsung has maintained its “union-free” management since its founding by Lee Byung-chull is an open secret. Executives boast better treatment than what can be achieved through any collective bargaining, yet there are other strategies which have effectively kept employees from creating unions or joining those existing small bodies. At most workplaces, labor-management councils with different names are operated for “consultations” on labor conditions.

The four charter members of the Everland union call their body the Samsung Labor Union and declared that it was open to all employees of the Samsung Group and workers at its suppliers. Yet, the two national umbrella unions, FKTU and KCTU, which seek to help establish “real” unions at Samsung, do not find the credentials of these promoters of a Samsung union strong enough to win their trust.

A serious labor union movement at Samsung still looks far off but Samsung’s management will have to prepare themselves for an eventual accommodation of unions under the changing labor environment in this country.