"Samsung Union Demands 45 Trillion Won, Exceeding Last Year's R&D Investment, Pressuring with Threat of General Strike"

Strike Planned for May 21 to June 7 if Talks Collapse

"Excessive 'Get-Rich-Quick' Mentality Hinders Company Growth"

The Samsung Electronics labor union has reportedly demanded performance bonuses totaling approximately 45 trillion won.

Nationwide Samsung Electronics Labor Union chanting slogans. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

According to the industry on April 12, Samsung Electronics announced its first-quarter preliminary earnings on April 7, delivering record-breaking results. With some forecasts suggesting that annual operating profit could reach up to 300 trillion won, the union argued that, assuming annual semiconductor operating profit of 270 trillion won, 15% of that amount—about 40.5 trillion won—should be allocated for performance bonuses.

Given some securities firms’ annual estimates of 300 trillion won, the calculation is that more than 45 trillion won in bonuses should be distributed to semiconductor employees. This is far larger than what memory rival SK hynix pays and even exceeds the 37.7 trillion won Samsung Electronics invested in R&D last year.

This amount is also four times greater than the 10.3 trillion won SK hynix paid to acquire Intel’s NAND business in 2020. For comparison, Samsung Electronics’ acquisition of Harman International in 2016 cost about 9 trillion won, and the purchase of Plakt Group, Europe’s largest air conditioning company, in 2025 was valued at 2.4 trillion won.

Both inside and outside the industry, there has been criticism that these demands are excessive. An official from the semiconductor industry commented, “At a time when labor and management should be working together to strengthen long-term competitiveness, this kind of opportunism could hinder the company’s growth,” adding, “There are concerns that it may lead to reduced investment in next-generation technology and facilities.”

Shareholders have also reacted negatively. Last year, Samsung Electronics paid a total of about 11.1 trillion won in dividends to shareholders, including special dividends. If the union’s demands were realized, the approximately 77,000 semiconductor employees would receive bonuses totaling nearly four times the dividends paid to the company’s four million shareholders last year.

It is expected that 95% of Samsung Electronics’ annual operating profit this year will come from the Device Solutions (DS) division, which handles the semiconductor business. Among the roughly 70,000 members of the super-enterprise union, which holds a majority at Samsung Electronics, 55,000 are from the DS division, accounting for about 80% of the total. As the union focuses its compensation demands exclusively on the semiconductor segment, there are concerns about relative deprivation among the DX division employees, who are responsible for home appliances, TVs, and smartphones.

With operating profit for the DX division estimated to be around 12 trillion won, applying the union’s current bonus calculation method would actually result in lower bonuses for these employees compared to previous years.

Last month, the union declared a suspension of negotiations and is planning to hold a general assembly at the Pyeongtaek campus on April 23. If no agreement is reached after that, the union plans to launch a general strike from the following day, April 21, through June 7.

An industry official warned, “This could pour cold water on the recent orders Samsung Electronics secured in the memory and foundry sectors,” adding, “Both management and labor need to make mutual concessions to avoid a full-scale strike.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.