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.

Comments

And in news from next week...

[Anubis IV]

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"?

Re:And in news from next week...

[stephanruby]

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"?

That's not how globalization works.

Samsung has already been shutting down plants in Malaysia and China while at the same time opening new plants in Vietnam. If any plant is on the chopping block, it's the plants in Malaysia and China.

And if anybody is going to be laid off, it's the older workers with families, carpel tunnel syndrome, and higher wages, not the newbies that are still ecstatic to be making $150 a week for 80 hours of work (which used to be a yearly wage three to four years ago).

Re:And in news from next week...

[Anubis IV]

Whether they're a one-hit wonder or not doesn't matter. When you're dealing with manufacturing at this scale, your lead times stretch back a year or more. They already had facilities lined up to make those phones, just as they had facilities lined up to make this phone. Now that this phone isn't getting made, they're over-provisioned, so either they'll:
A) Come up with an idea for how they can push plans forward and/or manufacture something new that they hadn't been planning to previously, that way they don't have to operate the facilities at a loss due to having too little work for them.

B) Operate the facilities at a loss for the next year or so, that way they don't lose out on the fixed costs they spent in getting those facilities operational in the first place.

C) Scrap/sell the facilities in order to recoup some of their costs without incurring any additional losses.

Re:Why would they worry?

[Registered Coward v2]

Is someone concerned that gadget buyers are going so stop sorting by price and buying the cheapest one? Until Vietnam employs enough people to create wage pressure they don't have a damn thing to worry about. Exploding batteries, shredding tires, contaminated food... none of that has ever impacted Chinese trade with the west. Can't imagine why Vietnam should worry about that all.

Once Hillary pencil-whips TPP through however that could change; there are other disposable Asians that will breath aluminum dust 12 hours a day for even fewer pennies. That's what they really need to worry about.

Lovely little world we have here.

Exactly. There jobs are safe until someone cheaper comes along. Why do the think Samsung is in Vietnam instead of China or South Korea? Any product where labor is is a significant percentage the product cost and doesn't require highly skilled workers will be made at the lowest wage place that can make it at the required quality.