[THE INVESTOR] Workers at the ailing shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries voted on June 28 to go on a strike to protest the firm’s restructuring plan.

Among a total of 5,396 members of the “labor council,” 4,768 participated in the ballot and 4,382, or 91.9 percent, voted for a strike, the group said. Formally, the company doesn’t allow a labor union.

But the council has yet to decide when to start the collective action.

“The vote does not mean we will immediately go on a strike,” Byun Sung-joon, head of the council, told the press.  

“What’s needed now is to establish a communication channel joined by the management, creditors and the workers.”

He added around 150 members of the council will head to Seoul on June 29 for a rally in front of the Samsung Group’s headquarters.

They will then visit the Korea Development Bank, a main creditor of the firm, to deliver the union‘s opposition to the restructuring scheme intended to cut some 1,500 jobs at the shipyard this year alone and sell noncore assets.

Samsung Heavy, one of Korea’s three major shipyards, has been struggling to stay afloat amid financial troubles attributable to an industry-wide crisis and fierce competition.

In early June, the KDB accepted Samsung’s self-restructuring plan, giving it some time to try to ride out the crisis on its own.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)