Annulled Wage Agreement? Samsung Together Union Holds Another Rally Amid Stubborn Demands

Seocho Rally Planned This Month with "Equal Rights" Message
Weak Grounds for Renegotiating the Wage Agreement
Court Dismisses Requests to Halt Agreement's Effect
“Repeated Renegotiations Would Mire Labor-Management Relations”

The Samsung Electronics Labor Union 'Together,' which primarily represents employees in the DX (Device eXperience) division responsible for home appliances, TVs, and smartphones, is continuing to hold large-scale rallies. Following the rally held last month at the Suwon plant, another demonstration is scheduled in front of the company’s Seocho office later this month. While the Together Union is demanding the annulment of the wage agreement and a renegotiation, industry insiders point out that there is insufficient ground for reopening negotiations on a wage agreement that was already finalized after a prolonged bargaining process and a union membership vote.

According to industry sources on August 7, the Together Union plans to hold a rally on August 21 in front of the Samsung Electronics Seocho office building in Seoul. The union expects about 1,500 people to participate in the rally. At the demonstration near the Suwon plant on July 16, the organizers estimated that some 7,000 people gathered.

The union is calling for the following: compensation in the form of 1,000 company shares per DX division employee; prior securing of a common fund and disclosure of its size for the payment of 2027 performance bonuses; and the complete annulment of the 2026 wage negotiation results followed by genuine negotiations. At this rally as well, they are set to bring forward messages such as "same company, same rights," calling for a reduction in compensation gaps between divisions.

However, criticisms remain that there are weak grounds for renegotiating the wage agreement previously reached between labor and management. The agreement was finalized in a union-wide vote in May, with 73.7% approval, after wage negotiations began in December of last year, went through mediation at the National Labor Relations Commission, and underwent two subsequent rounds of post-mediation adjustments.

On the 16th of last month, members of the Samsung Electronics Labor Union Together (Together Union) were shouting slogans in front of the Samsung Electronics Suwon Plant in Yeongtong District, Suwon City, Gyeonggi Province, protesting against the discrepancy in performance bonuses. Photo by Yonhap News.

Initially, the Together Union also participated in the negotiations as part of a joint bargaining team, along with the Samsung Electronics Branch of the Samsung Group Supra-enterprise Union and the National Samsung Electronics Labor Union. However, the Together Union withdrew from the team on May 4, before a tentative agreement was reached.

So far, the courts have rejected applications to suspend the effect of the existing wage agreement. A provisional injunction filed by some DX division employees to halt wage and collective bargaining negotiations was dismissed because there was insufficient evidence of substantial defects in the bargaining demands. The Together Union’s application for a provisional injunction to suspend the effect of the tentative agreement was also dismissed, and their attempt to suspend the effect of the formal wage agreement itself was similarly denied.

Meanwhile, in accordance with the agreement, Samsung Electronics last month distributed company shares worth 6 million won per person to 49,345 employees in the DX division and CSS business team. The average wage increase of 6.2% was also applied company-wide, regardless of division.

Professor Park Jisoon of Korea University Law School commented, "Since the criteria for performance bonuses—including those for the DX division—were already agreed upon, it is difficult to renegotiate the same topics." He further noted, "This rally appears to be an attempt to pressure the company with next year's negotiations in mind, rather than an effort to overturn the current agreement," warning, "If the practice of repeating renegotiations whenever there is backlash after an agreement is reached becomes widespread, labor-management relations could descend into chaos."

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