hankyoreh

By Kim Jin-chul, staff writer

Five hundred employees in the LCD division of Samsung Electronics heard their cell phones chime at the same time Tuesday. As the employees looked at their phones, their faces showed a mixture of astonishment and fear. The message was a tangle of words like “LCD spinoff,” “opinion,” “disregard,” “force,” “irrational,” “illegitimate,” and “freedom.”

It was an example of what is coming to be known as a “thumb demonstration,” a kind of organized movement to communicate worker dismay with management. This protest was conceived in response to the Samsung Electronics board of directors’ Feb. 12 decision to spin off the LCD division into an affiliate called Samsung Display and to force employees to sign transfer consent forms.

An employee in the division said, “The company half-browbeat me into signing the consent form."

"They stuck a bunch of third-shift female employees in the education center and told them to sign before they left work that day, while the bosses either yelled at us to ‘just write something’ or threatened us with a third round employment interview if we didn’t sign it," the employee added.

Under this pressure, most of the employees signed their forms within a week. Of the 17 thousand total employees, only twenty or so are believed to have held out.

A deputy director in the division identified as Hong sent a text message to 500 colleagues reading, "In the company‘s LCD spin-off decision last month and the subsequent signing of transfer consent forms, our opinions and right to choose were disregarded." The words traveled to around three thousand people. At Samsung Electronics, which has an ironclad "no union" policy, these phones were their sole means of communicating.

The responses came fast and furious. "Is there anything I can do?" read one. "I feel the same way," read another, ”but I don’t know what to do because I’ve already consented." "There’s nothing to be done about it. I’ve signed and everything. It’s too late now :("

The message came with specific demands: either cancel the spin-off and restart the discussions from square one, or else pay three to six months’ salary in consolation money to Samsung Display transfers, including the employees who signed consent forms, accept voluntary resignations and pay severance equivalent to one to two years’ salary, and carry out a transfer for the remainder.

Samsung Electronics currently plans to formally approve the LCD division at a regular general shareholders‘ meeting Friday morning. Samsung Display is to go into operation on Apr. 1.

Hong, an assistant manager who launched the "thumb demonstration," was summoned before the personnel team Thursday.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]