Samsung Biologics' labor union has another strike in the works after action planned for last month was held up by an injunction from Seoul’s High Court.
The union said its latest decision to strike was sparked by management’s attempt to postpone a November 3rd bargaining session, a union official confirmed to Fierce over email. The union rejected the postponement, the official said, but the session did not proceed earlier this month as planned.
The union official said that roughly 400 members will begin a strike on November 6th and continue through November 27th. The strike will primarily include quality control, quality assurance, and logistics employees, among others from Samsung Bio's workforce.
The union has also said it plans to strike "in production processes in stages," in keeping with the Seoul High Court’s ruling last month.
The court injunction prohibited strike efforts across nine “core stages” of production at Samsung Biologics’ Songdo campus, a decision meant to safeguard the company’s cell-based manufacturing against an impending Oct. 26 strike. Samsung contended that it’s manufacturing process was delicate, depending on living cells, and that a strike could risk “the medicines patients rely on.”
Earlier this year, the CDMO said it was forced to spend 150 billion Korean won ($102 million) to keep operations going over just four days when more than 2,800 employees went on wage-related strike.
In response to the October court ruling, the labor union postponed its Oct. 26 strike. The ruling “requires us to adapt our strategy, but it does not mean that we have abandoned industrial action," a union representative told Fierce at the time.
As for the current stall in negotiations, Samsung Biologics has pointed to its union’s tactics as the reason for the recent bargaining delay.
In a Nov. 2nd statement, the company took issue with union’s approach, alleging it was forging ahead with strike plans “behind the scenes," pressuring the company through media coverage and refusing to work with the company’s negotiator. Moving forward with the Nov. 3rd negotiations under these circumstances “would further undermine mutual respect and trust,” the company said, as quoted by The Asia Business Daily.
Tension between labor and management has been mounting this year. In March, the union first secured the votes needed to strike, citing “unresolved governance failures and rigid labor policies” from the CDMO, in addition to wage disputes.
And lately, labor and management have also reportedly clashed over the logistics behind the negotiations. On Oct. 30, the union sent an official letter to the company requesting that its current bargaining representative be replaced and excluded from future meetings, Korean news outlet Edaily reported. The company denied the union’s request, calling it an “unreasonable demand without rational grounds.”
Samsung Biologics then proposed the negotiation delay, a move that union officials have criticized.
"The company keeps repeating that it cannot hold talks because of pressure from the union, and is shifting responsibility onto the union and its members," the union said in a statement sent to Seoul Economic Daily. "Because the dialogue ended through the company's unilateral breakoff, we will prepare and carry out the industrial action we had already planned without disruption."
A Samsung Biologics spokesperson told Fierce that the company had been notified of the upcoming strike and remains committed to the negotiations.
"The planned action is expected to involve a limited number of union members in certain non-manufacturing functions," the spokesperson said. "Our priority is maintaining supply stability and product quality for our clients and the patients who rely on them, and contingency plans are in place to minimize impact on operations."