Mass fight breaks out at Samsung plant in northern Vietnam

A protest involving hundreds of construction workers broke out at a Vietnamese plant run by electronics giant Samsung in the northern province of Bac Ninh on February 28, after clashes with guards at the plant.

Police from Yen Phong District said violence broke out at Samsung Display, a screen production unit of the Korean company.

An eyewitness told VnExpress that the conflict started after a male worker of around 40 years old was pushed from behind and fell out of the line while waiting to clock in with other workers at the gate after lunch at around 1 p.m.

“The guards pulled him into their room and there was a fight. Many other workers were angry and chased after the guards.”

Police cleared the crowd after a couple hours but more than 10 officers stayed to prevent further clashes.

A representative from Samsung Vietnam said there was no conflict between the company and its Vietnamese workers.

"It was a complete misunderstanding between guards and construction workers when security check into the construction site took longer than expected," the source said.

The source said that one of the guards was injured and all the workers are fine.

Samsung Display has recently received a license to invest US$2.5 billion in Vietnam, boosting its total investment in the country to US$6.5 billion. 

The extra funding will increase the plant's capacity to 220 million products a year from 180 million now, Vietnam Television reported last week. 

Samsung was Vietnam's biggest exporter last year. The company earned US$39.9 billion in revenue from shipping electronics, up 10%                       against 2015 and contributing 23% to Vietnam’s total export revenue.