Sawt Falasteen - Samsung says 'no disruption' to production despite strike

More than 5,000 members of the National Samsung Electronic Union stopped working Monday, the organisation said, as part of a long-running battle over pay and benefits.

The union has more than 30,000 members -- more than a fifth of the company's total workforce.

"There has been no disruption to production," local media quoted Samsung as saying.

Park Seol, a senior member of the union, told AFP Tuesday that production was being affected.

"But more importantly, the company should understand that we aren't trying just to affect their production line, we want them to hear our voice and understand how desperate we are," he said.

The union has been locked in negotiations with management since January, but the two sides have failed to narrow differences on benefits and a 5.1 percent pay raise offer from the firm was rejected.

In a regulatory filing last week, Samsung Electronics said that its April-June operating profits were expected to rise to 10.4 trillion won ($7.54 billion), up 1,452.2 percent from 670 billion won a year earlier.

Sales, meanwhile, are expected to rise 23.3 percent to 74 trillion won, Samsung said.

Samsung Electronics is the world's largest memory chip maker and accounts for a significant chunk of the global output of high-end chips.

U.AlSharif--SF-PST