0
Members of the joint struggle committee of Samsung Electronics labor unions shout slogans during a rally held in front of the Samsung Electronics Pyeongtaek Campus in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, on April 23 last year. /Yonhap News

Three days ahead of Samsung Electronics labor unions' planned general strike, a court partially granted an injunction filed by Samsung Electronics against the unions to block illegal collective action. As the court accepted a significant portion of the management's arguments, the unions' general strike has hit a major roadblock.

On May 18, the Civil Affairs Division 31 of the Suwon District Court (Presiding Judge Shin Woo-jung) partially granted the injunction against illegal collective action filed by Samsung Electronics on April 16 against two unions: the Samsung Electronics Branch of the Super-Enterprise Labor Union and the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU). The court ruled that "safety protection facilities must maintain the same level of workforce and operations as during normal times." This means the debtors must cooperate to ensure that safety protection facilities are maintained and operated during the strike with the same level of personnel, operating hours, and resources as on regular weekdays or weekends and holidays.

Furthermore, the court stated, "The debtors must not interfere with, or order their union members to interfere with, the prevention of damage to work facilities and the prevention of wafer degradation—tasks the creditor claims as security operations—and these must be performed with the same level of workforce, operating hours, scale, and duty of care as during normal times prior to the dispute." The Super-Enterprise Labor Union and its chairman, Choi Seung-ho, were also prohibited from occupying all or part of the facilities, installing locking devices, or blocking employees' access.

However, the court dismissed some of the management's requests, including prohibiting the debtors from using intimidation to appeal for or persuade others to join the dispute, banning interference against the creditor's workers and executives, and blocking the NSEU from occupying facilities.

Should the unions violate this ruling, each union must pay Samsung Electronics 100 million won per day of violation, while the union branch heads and representatives must pay 10 million won each. As the unions had previously announced an 18-day general strike from May 21 to June 7 involving approximately 50,000 workers, the ruling is expected to have a significant impact on the scale and participation of the strike.

Meanwhile, management and labor at Samsung Electronics have been holding their final negotiations before the general strike since this morning at the National Labor Relations Commission in the Government Complex Sejong, mediated by the government to resolve the conflict over performance bonuses.