March 02nd, 2017

Samsung says uprising at Vietnam construction site not true

According to a variety of local news sources, construction workers at a Samsung factory in Vietnam, battled with local police, set fire to motorbikes, resulting in at least 13 people being injured.  While there are conflicting reports as to the cause of the violence, the disruption was said to have started after a worker was beaten by security guards after entering the construction site through a wrong door.  According to Samsung, the construction at the site was unaffected and will do its ‘utmost to prevent any such incidences in the future’.  After lunch, 5,000 to 6,000 workers were made to line up to have their IDs read by security guards when fingerprint readers malfunctioned and after the incident between the worker and security guards, workers set fire to the turnstiles that normally read their IDs.

Samsung was Vietnam’s biggest exporter last year, generating 23% of Vietnam’s total export revenue, and Samsung Display has recently been granted an additional license for $2.5b in local investments, which brings the company total to $6.5b in Vietnam investments overall, with the country providing lower labor costs than both Samsung’s South Korean workers, and those in China, where it has other facilities.  The average monthly wage in Vietnam is $145 (Hanoi), which is much lower than the Philippines ($379), which competes directly for technology company dollars.  Of course, officially Samsung says the tales of an ‘uprising’ are not true, although it says it will not let any new incidents occur in the future.