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To: IceShark who wrote (42864)	2/8/1999 9:41:00 AM
From: J. P.	Respond to of 53903

LG workers returned for morning shift yesterday: LG Semicon Workers Return to Work After 16-day Strike Seoul, Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- LG Semicon Co. said its workers returned to work, ending a 16-day strike that cost an estimated $100 million in lost sales at one of the world's biggest makers of computer chips. LG Semicon, which makes about 7 percent of the world's computer memory chips, said representatives of 7,500 workers accepted a management offer of six months' wages in return for their agreement to let Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. take over the company. The company will also pay unspecified special weekly bonuses to workers if they meet production targets. The protest will cost LG Semicon, a unit of LG Group, Korea's fourth- largest conglomerate, at least $100 million in lost sales, analysts said. ''All workers on the morning shift reported to work,'' said LG Semicon spokesman Han Sang Soo. ''They will be preparing for production today and chip supply will resume in two to three days.'' LG Semicon's production stoppage helped boost global prices of memory chips, which have been rebounding after falling to a low last summer. Memory chips are the electronic brains for everything from mobile telephones to computers. Analysts say 64-megabit dynamic random access memory chips, the type most widely used in personal computers, cost between $10 and $11 each now, compared with $7.60 in July. Stable Prices ''I don't think the resumption of operation at LG will have any major impact on memory chip prices,'' said Eugene Ha, electronics analyst at Samsung Securities Co. ''Only a slowdown in demand will push down prices and there's no such signs.'' The process to control quality and difficulty in improving productivity amid uncertainty over labor cooperation are expected to prevent LG from resuming full production for weeks. LG's rivals, including Samsung Electronics Co. and Micron Technology Inc. of the U.S., the world's two biggest memory chipmakers, have been capitalizing on the strike to increase their sales. ''We don't have to ramp up for chip production from scratch but for those portions for which we'll have to begin inputting (silicon) wafers, it will take us about 50 days before chips are finally made,'' the LG spokesman said. Analysts say with the company due to be taken over by Hyundai, LG would find it hard to advance manufacturing technology and improve yields, as most memory chip companies will have to do to cut costs because prices for memory chips fall quickly. LG Semicon workers downed their tools on Jan. 23, demanding guarantees of at least five years' job security, after Hyundai agreed last month to buy LG Semicon to create one of the world's two largest memory chip firms along with Samsung Electronics Co., surpassing Micron Technology. During negotiations with management last week, workers accepted Hyundai's offer to employ all LG Semicon staff until the end of next year. The company will pay the equivalent of 10 months' wages to affected workers if layoffs become unavoidable before then, LG Semicon said. Hyundai's planned takeover of LG Semicon is part of a series of government-brokered mergers and business swaps aimed at focusing Korea's top five business groups -- Hyundai, Samsung, Daewoo, LG and SK Groups -- on areas of strength. LG Semicon stock rose 1.3 percent to 11,850 won. 00:02:24 02/08/1999