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In Samsung's Town in Vietnam, Workers Confident of Riding Out Note 7 Storm (reuters.com)
As Samsung Electronics struggles to salvage its reputation after the safety problems that have beset its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, the South Korean company can at least bank on an army of Vietnamese workers for support, Reuters report. From the article: Tens of thousands of them are involved in assembling more than a third of Samsung's smartphones -- the Galaxy Note 7 included -- in the Pho Yen area of Thai Nguyen province, which is about 65 km north of the Vietnamese capital Hanoi. Samsung's arrival three years ago transformed it from a sleepy farming district into a sprawling industrial town. While the company expects to take a profit hit of around $5 billion from the scrapping of the fire-prone phone, 13 workers interviewed by Reuters outside the factory almost all said they are confident their employer will pull through. They also say Samsung pays well, offers good benefits and takes care of their needs. "Recalling (Note 7) doesn't mean we are unemployed or such; Samsung also makes many other phones and new models, not just the Note 7," said Nguyen Thi Hang, one of some 110,000 Vietnamese who work for Samsung Electronics across Vietnam, making it one of the nation's biggest employers.
Is it really any surprise that 13 employees who have only been with their employer for less than three years, all of which were a boom time for the employer, would have confidence in their employer? Let's see what they have to say this time next year after their employer has had to deal with a bust year. Sure, Samsung makes other phones that still need producing, but if your facility was the one lined up to make the Note 7 while the rest of the facilities already cover production for the other phones, guess which facility gets voted "Most Likely to Be Shut Down"?
How long until the headline reads "Samsung's Vietnamese workers caught by surprise at entirely predictable announcement of layoffs"?