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Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking

english.hani.co.kr

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Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking

#31

Post by alephnerd »

makapuf wrote: post #29
alephnerd wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be pessimistic about a cultural change - look at what happened to the Doctor's strike. The only option is to become an expat and end up perpetuating the same traumas, as Pinoy, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, Indonesian, etc employees of Korean companies in their countries can attest to. Korean work culture is itself a reflection of Japanese work culture back when SK was Japan's version of Mexico before the 20…

Can you tell us what happened to the Doctors strike ?

When Korean Legislative Elections were around the corner in early 2024, the incumbent govenenent announced an increase in the number of seats at medical programs in SK as a populist Hail Mary.

Yet they did NOT increase the number of resident positions and left reimbursement rates at the same level as almost a decade ago. Also, the average doctor in SK works 100 hours a week instead of 60 like in the US.

This meant that both junior and senior doctors ended up having to work more (they'd need to increase the number of medical students per training doctor post-degree) while still earning their existing salary and needing to pay off college loans (which in Korea are state school level despite incomes being a fraction of the US).

Instead of negotiating with doctors, the government decided to instead revoke striking doctor's medical licenses.

There is now a significant brain drain as Korean doctors look to immigrate to Japan or the US.

And this is how a strike was resolved against white collar workers.

Blue collar unskilled workers have even less leverage, because you can always import a "Trainee" from Vietnam, Phillipines, Indonesia, Nepal, etc for a pittance.

Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking

#32

Post by cjbgkagh »

bibliotekka wrote: post #18
ryandrake wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Some workers lose their jobs to automation. > 2. The remaining ones have a weaker negotiation power, as their jobs are on the way out anyway. So companies have even more incentive to abuse them. I wonder what the eventual end game is, when you let everything play out to its logical conclusion. Eventually, business owners will no longer need people at all. They'll own a magical fully-automated factory that mainta…

The richest and most powerful will lobby for universal basic income because it will benefit them at some tipping point, where the masses will need to be subsidized to keep the consumption machine running, maybe?

I think the middle class feels safer with the notion that the economy will not survive without them, thus whatever system results must maintain some sort of middle class. I don’t think this is true at all, while not ideal many places continue to operate just fine with a few very rich and everyone else very poor.

The consumption machine has a wealth effect which is an artifact of a ponzie economy. This mathematically cannot last forever, even if it has lasted for a long time and will continue to last for a long time. What matters to wealth is production. Traditionally highly technical production needed a decent middle class, but efficiencies mean fewer such people are needed to maintain the same proficiency. Coupled with globalization where a smart person anywhere can design technical things that can then be used everywhere. This decouples the wealth of the rich from the health of the middle class and the rich would be happily sacrifice the middle class in the alter of cheaper labor and will whisper sweet nothings in your ear while doing so. Not them personally but the people they pay to operate on their behalf. To me it makes perfect sense to promise UBI to undermine resistance and then not deliver on that promise to again undermine resistance. I think the middle class would be fools to believe that UBI will come and save them.

Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking

#33

Post by cjbgkagh »

mschuster91 wrote: post #28
ryandrake wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Some workers lose their jobs to automation. > 2. The remaining ones have a weaker negotiation power, as their jobs are on the way out anyway. So companies have even more incentive to abuse them. I wonder what the eventual end game is, when you let everything play out to its logical conclusion. Eventually, business owners will no longer need people at all. They'll own a magical fully-automated factory that mainta…

Well... yes, for capitalism, that is the endgame. Neo-feudalism to be precise. And unlike the last times where feudalism was overthrown, these days police is often enough on par with the military, and the governments can track us whenever and wherever we want by the tiny little bugs we carry around in our pockets. Call for a revolution or for violent acts online, and a day later the FBI knocks on your door and takes…

I worry that people don’t understand how much violence it took to obtain enlightenment values and that such values may only be a quirk of history. We are very fortunate to live in such a time that is not the natural and default norm for humanity. I worry that attempts to further the gains will fail and we will not only not make additional gains but lose what we had with no possible way or regain even enlightenment values in our lifetimes or any number of lifetimes.

Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking

#34

Post by JumpCrisscross »

ryandrake wrote: post #13
abdullahkhalids wrote: post #7

> Samsung’s 12-inch line utilizes an overhead hoist transport (OHT) system, an automated transport network that operates along tracks installed on the ceiling, to move bundles of 25 wafers called “lots.” On the 8-inch line, however, this transportation is done manually. There is much more market demand for 12-inch wafers, so Samsung has modernized and automated many processes. The 8-inch line, however, is outdated. W…

> 1. Some workers lose their jobs to automation. > 2. The remaining ones have a weaker negotiation power, as their jobs are on the way out anyway. So companies have even more incentive to abuse them. I wonder what the eventual end game is, when you let everything play out to its logical conclusion. Eventually, business owners will no longer need people at all. They'll own a magical fully-automated factory that mainta…

> Eventually, business owners will no longer need people at all

Maybe? This has been hypothesised since the Industrial Revolution. We’re nowhere close to labour obsolescence.

Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking

#35

Post by moandcompany »

marcodiego wrote: post #16

I worked for a giant Korean company (offshore, third party outsource). Their view of workers right is very different from "the west". It was said, among my colleagues at the time, that in our country their main headquarters had a law office exclusively to handle abuse cases quickly. I heard stories of Korean lifting their voices and a case where the chair of a programmer was kicked by a Korean manager because he let…

Some aspects of hierarchy-based power dynamics (i.e. bullying and abuse) have been captured into a relatively new, and unique Korean word, "Gapjil" (갑질).

Gapjil (Korean: 갑질) is an expression referring to an arrogant and authoritarian attitude or actions of people in South Korea who have positions of power over others. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gapjil)

Gapjil is typically used to describe the abusive dynamics of one person above another in a hierarchy but has also been extended to describing the power abuse dynamics of large businesses interacting with smaller ones (e.g. small suppliers).

As you mentioned, Korean language and society reflects a "high-context" culture where language itself uses and encodes social hierarchy position through the use of "honorifics," speaking to or addressing to people above by their title/rank or "treatment."

"Over 80% of public perceive 'gapjil' problem as serious: survey" (2021) https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20210113000769

The practice was made illegal in South Korea (2019) under its Labor Standard Act (LSA), but the effectiveness of that law has been scrutinized quite a bit, as many surveyed state it remains highly prevalent in the workplace:

(Law fails to protect Koreans from workplace bullying) https://asiatimes.com/2020/01/south-korea-fails-to-stamp-out...

Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking

#36

Post by wormlord »

Samsung is the only job interview I have walked out of. I was told "you'll basically have zero wlb for the first 2-3 years while we are getting this fab off the ground". I immediately said I was withdrawing my candidacy. I can't imagine what the floor workers jobs are like if that's how demanding the SWE side is.

It's especially soul-crushing when you think what the next Xnm process translates to in the real-world. Incrementally better performance for encoding cat videos or whatever. No thanks.

Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking

#37

Post by bluedino »

wormlord wrote: post #36

Samsung is the only job interview I have walked out of. I was told "you'll basically have zero wlb for the first 2-3 years while we are getting this fab off the ground". I immediately said I was withdrawing my candidacy. I can't imagine what the floor workers jobs are like if that's how demanding the SWE side is. It's especially soul-crushing when you think what the next Xnm process translates to in the real-world. I…

wlb?

Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking

#38

Post by prewett »

huijzer wrote: post #23
ryandrake wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Some workers lose their jobs to automation. > 2. The remaining ones have a weaker negotiation power, as their jobs are on the way out anyway. So companies have even more incentive to abuse them. I wonder what the eventual end game is, when you let everything play out to its logical conclusion. Eventually, business owners will no longer need people at all. They'll own a magical fully-automated factory that mainta…

I think you can find businesses like this already. They only have a few capable people and that’s it. For example, MasterCard, Visa, RenTec, and probably some hedge funds somewhere.

You're telling me that of MasterCard's 33,000 employees and Visa's 28,800 employees, only a "few" are "capable"? Either management is negligently incompetent or, well, maybe the hubris is from a different direction.

Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking

#39

Post by knoebber »

bluedino wrote: post #37
wormlord wrote: post #36

Samsung is the only job interview I have walked out of. I was told "you'll basically have zero wlb for the first 2-3 years while we are getting this fab off the ground". I immediately said I was withdrawing my candidacy. I can't imagine what the floor workers jobs are like if that's how demanding the SWE side is. It's especially soul-crushing when you think what the next Xnm process translates to in the real-world. I…

wlb?

I assume 'work life balance'

Re: Women who make Samsung semiconductors are striking

#40

Post by [deleted] »

bluedino wrote: post #37
wormlord wrote: post #36

Samsung is the only job interview I have walked out of. I was told "you'll basically have zero wlb for the first 2-3 years while we are getting this fab off the ground". I immediately said I was withdrawing my candidacy. I can't imagine what the floor workers jobs are like if that's how demanding the SWE side is. It's especially soul-crushing when you think what the next Xnm process translates to in the real-world. I…

wlb?

[deleted]
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