Samsung Electronics union to proceed with strike despite management's dialogue offer

Samsung Electronics largest labor union said Friday it will proceed with a major strike planned for next week despite the company's proposal to resume talks without preconditions. An official proposal was sent to the union earlier in the day, in what is seen as the management's latest effort to avert a planned 18-day strike beginning next Thursday that could disrupt production at the world's largest memory chipmaker. The union reaffirmed its position that it has no intention of engaging in further dialogue unless its key demands on performance-based bonuses are addressed before another round of government-mediated talks proposed for Saturday. "We are willing to hold discussions after June 7," Choi Seung-ho, head of Samsung Electronics' largest labor union, said, referring to the day after the planned strike is scheduled to end. "We intend to exercise the rights guaranteed under the Constitution." Two days of government-led mediation talks ended without an agreement Wednesday, as labor and management remained sharply divided over performance-based bonuses tied to earnings from the company