(May 26): A Samsung Electronics Co union representing workers outside the ultra-profitable semiconductor division asked a Korean court to block voting on a tentative deal that would distribute about 40 trillion won (US$26.6 billion or $34 billion) in bonuses to chip employees.
The union, which is Samsung’s smallest and made up mostly of staff in the digital experience (DX) division, said Tuesday it had filed an injunction to stop voting on the deal. Its leaders have said Samsung’s largest union, which led last week’s wage negotiations that averted a planned strike, disproportionately favoured the chip division at the expense of other units.
Union members are now voting on whether to accept a provisional deal that would see Samsung distribute bonuses for this year to 78,000 people in its semiconductors division. While bonus levels will vary, workers stand to get 513 million won on average, equivalent to US$340,000, according to Bloomberg calculations based on proposed terms and estimates for 2026 operating profit. Workers in the DX division stand to get bonus payouts of just 6 million won. Samsung employees earned 158 million won on average in 2025, according to a company filing in March.
Voting on the tentative wage agreement is due to end Wednesday, with 87% of eligible members already casting their votes as of Monday evening, according to union officials. It remains unclear whether the attempt by the union representing DX workers would affect the ratification process.
A simple majority is required for the preliminary agreement to be formally approved. Analysts expect the union to approve the deal, which was reached last week after months of tense negotiations and strike threats.
The move underscores divisions within the electronics behemoth over a deepening gap in compensation between different business divisions.
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Workers are demanding a greater share of earnings as Samsung is on track to become one of the world’s most profitable firms by the end of the year. The Korean giant is the biggest supplier of the memory chips that go into everything from smartphones and electric vehicles to the AI data centre servers that power services like ChatGPT and Claude.
Samsung’s DX division oversees finished products such as smartphones, home appliances and TVs. Previously, the smallest of Samsung’s three labour unions had joined a collective bargaining committee alongside the other two to negotiate with management. But it later withdrew, arguing that the interests of employees in the DX division were not being adequately reflected. Following the split, the largest union said members of the smallest union no longer held voting rights.
The smallest union’s membership has surged from about 3,000 before the preliminary agreement to nearly 13,000 as of Tuesday morning.
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