South Korea: trade unions make inroads into Samsung Electronics

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.