South Korea’s largest company Samsung Electronics lost as much as 99.07 trillion won ($66.18 billion) in market value on Wednesday after failing to reach a wage agreement with its workers union.
This represented an intraday drop of as much as 6.09% in its share price from yesterday’s close of 279,000 won, and comes as its labor union threatened an 18-day strike from May 21 if its demands were not met.
More than 41,000 workers are expected to join the walkout, which was first announced at a rally on April 23.
“I would like to express some regret that none of the agenda items requested by the union have been addressed,” union representative Choi Seung-ho told reporters Wednesday, according to a report by Reuters.
The demands center on Samsung’s performance-based bonus system. The union is reportedly demanding that Samsung allocate 15% of its operating profit to workers as performance bonuses, scrap caps on bonus payouts, and formalize the bonus structure.
