Samsung Electronics and striking union to resume talks on Friday

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics and representatives of its biggest workers' union in South Korea that has been on a strike since early last week have agreed to resume negotiations on Friday, the two sides said.

They plan to meet on Friday to set a firm negotiation schedule, Son Woo-mok, president of the National Samsung Electronics Union whose roughly 30,000 members make up almost a quarter of the company's South Korean workforce, told a YouTube live broadcast.

The union has been on an indefinite strike over pay and benefits.

Samsung said in a statement it hopes that the strike will be resolved as soon as possible, and confirmed it has proposed an unconditional resumption of dialogue.

Analysts have said a drawn-out strike by key personnel will add to challenges for Samsung, the world's biggest memory chipmaker, which is struggling to navigate competition in semiconductors used for artificial intelligence.

Samsung has said the strike has caused no disruption to chip production.

(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Joyce Lee; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)