LG Semicon: Management and workers still at odds over merger details
By Jack Robertson
Electronic Buyers' News
(02/04/99, 10:20:04 AM EDT)
LG Semicon fab workers continued their walkout today for the 12th day, while the Korean chip maker hopes the latest job security and salary bonus offers will be accepted.
An LG Semicon spokesman in Seoul, however, said today the two sides continued to differ on employment guarantees after the chip division is sold as planned to Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. He said it was still uncertain whether an agreement could be reached this week, as has been reported in the Korean press.
LG Semicon has offered up to a six month bonus to workers to return to their jobs and accept the acquisition by Hyundai.. For its part, Hyundai Electronics has said it would guarantee employment for LG workers through 2000. The LG workers have sought five-to-seven year job guarantees.
As the LG fab shutdown continued through its second week, the loss of production from the fifth largest largest global DRAM maker is starting to be felt in world spot markets, some analysts said. The American IC Exchange, Aliso Viejo, Calif., reported that OEMs are beginning to scout the spot market now as a hedge against possibly tighter memory supply due to the continued LG shutdown.
LG Semicon was producing mainstream 64-megabit DRAMs at the rate of about 15 million a month before the walkout. This was only slightly behind Micron's 18-million-to-20-million a month rate and Samsung Electronics' 18-million a month.
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