Samsung Electronics Faces Disruption at Indian Plant Due to Wage Strike

Samsung Electronics' factory in Sriperumbudur, India, faced a strike by hundreds of employees demanding higher wages and better working conditions. The strike, disrupting production for a second day, comes as South Korea-based Samsung considers India a key growth market. Samsung executives are working to resolve the situation.

Samsung Electronics' production at a plant in southern India was disrupted for a second day by hundreds of employees striking for higher wages on Tuesday, as top executives sought to resolve a rare episode of labour unrest. South Korea-based Samsung, India's biggest consumer electronics company, counts the country as a key growth market, competing with the likes of LG Electronics to make everything from televisions and refrigerators to smartphones.

The strike-hit plant in Sriperumbudur, the smaller of Samsung's two Indian factories, employs around 1,800 people and makes electronic products rather than smartphones. But it still contributes 20% to 30% of Samsung's annual $12 billion revenue in India, said two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Posters saying "Indefinite Strike" went up outside the factory near the city of Chennai, where hundreds of workers in company uniforms set up tents to shade themselves from the heat. "We are striking for the second day," said union leader E. Muthukumar.