Tentative deal struck at Samsung

Talking intensely until the 11th hour, Samsung Electronics' management and its unionized workers struck a tentative deal that put on hold a planned Thursday strike. Union members will now vote to finalize the deal. Tentative and on-hold may be the terms for the moment, but an imminent strike averted will reinject stability for the national economy and in the global supply chain of chips highly in demand for the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. Management and labor at the nation's tech giant each made some concessions regarding the bonus payments. Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon who mediated the final talks said that the two sides found common ground on the matter of distributing profits. A strike at Samsung Electronics would have hit the national economy and the global supply chain. Samsung accounts for about 14 percent of the nation's GDP and about a quarter of its exports. The Bank of Korea warned that a potential industrial action could shave off 0.5 percentage points from its forecast of 2 percent growth this year, and Prime Minister Kim Min-seok said it would be "fatal" to the

Original source: Korea Times