The LG Uplus union issued a forceful rebuttal after the Samsung Electronics union suggested that President Lee Jae-myung’s remark about “excessive demands” was directed at LG Uplus.
On May 1, the Minju U+ branch of the Public Transport Union said in a statement it could not hide its deep regret and anger that the chair of the Samsung Electronics union, through media comments and a members’ forum, implied the president’s “excessive demands” remark was aimed at the LG Uplus union rather than at Samsung.
The statement said the union’s push to secure bonus funds equal to 30% of operating profit “stems from six years of sustained struggle,” and that portraying the demand as a sudden, government-aligned “excessive demand” “seriously undermines the value of our movement.”
They added that shifting blame without verifying facts damages labor solidarity. “Labeling another union’s legitimate demands as ‘unreasonable’ to deflect criticism and tossing them to the wolves is a cowardly tactic,” the statement said.
The union warned that “workers are not the enemy of other workers,” arguing that at a fraught moment when the president’s comments are perceived as pressure on the broader labor movement, demonizing fellow unions’ demands plays into the “labor-versus-labor” conflict frame that capital and power seek to impose.
They also said belittling another group’s urgency to prove one’s own reasonableness “is not genuine labor activism.”
Finally, the Minju U+ branch demanded an official apology for what it called the Samsung union’s reckless remarks and urged Samsung’s union to immediately stop distorting other unions’ struggles and using them as a defensive shield.
Earlier, on April 30 — a day before Labor Day — President Lee told a meeting of senior secretaries at the Blue House, “If some organized workers make excessive demands to save themselves and draw public criticism, they will harm not only their own union but other workers as well. A sense of responsibility and solidarity is needed.”
Political observers interpreted the remark as potentially aimed at the Samsung Electronics union, which has recently signaled a large-scale strike.
In response, Choi Seung-ho, chair of the Trans-Company Union’s Samsung branch — the largest union at Samsung — reportedly told members on a community forum, when asked whether the president’s remarks were a warning to Samsung’s union: “He’s talking about LG (Uplus). They’re asking for 30%.” He added that demands should be set at a more reasonable level, such as 15%, as Samsung has sought.
