For the first time in fifty years a labor union affiliated with the South Korean umbrella union group, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU), has established a presence at the Samsung Electronics company in South Korea. In the week of November 11 a trade union body affiliated with its Metallurgy federation secured governmental certification to establish within the electronics group, which has kept separate from trade union federations for half a century. This new union presence is thus a key advance for the union organization that now sees its goal of collective bargaining at the electronics sector level now coming closer. Indeed, the federation already has a presence at LG Electronics and Hynix.
South Korea’s biggest trade union federation, the FKTU ends 50 years of union absence from the Samsung group. On 01 November 2019, Samsung Electronics celebrated its 50th birthday. Until 2018 the electronics giant was noted for its zero trade union presence, in a country where at 40%, the ten largest business groups have among the country’s highest unionization rates, and contrasts markedly with the 10% (2015 data) rate for its neighboring country. A year after Lee Sang-hoon, the previous chair
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