With Samsung Electronics labor and management holding a second post-adjustment meeting at the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) on the 18th, tensions are rising again just three days before the general strike. The union is protesting that, after the government's possible emergency arbitration was mentioned, management proposed a revised plan that backtracks from the NLRC's original mediation proposal. In addition, the court partially granted Samsung Electronics' request for an injunction to ban illegal industrial action, creating a new variable even as the general strike looms.
According to the industry on the 18th, as of 1:30 p.m. that day, 48,797 people had set a "strike nickname" on Samsung Electronics' internal messenger to signal their intent to join the general strike. Considering the figure stood at around 43,000 the day before, declarations of intent have surged. The union believes actual participation could also expand to around 50,000.
Internal assessments say the on-site mood is quite different from past labor-management disputes. A Samsung Electronics employee said, "In the past, discontent was mostly voiced by junior staff, but recently there are more cases where mid-level managers, such as responsibility-level staff and team leads, are publicly expressing their intention to join the strike."
Among employees, some say they are more disappointed by the company's attitude toward staff than by the size of performance bonuses. In particular, within the DS (semiconductors) institutional sector, complaints have piled up that the criteria for calculating performance bonuses and the compensation structure remain opaque.
Union pushback has grown since management presented a revised proposal the day before. According to materials shared within the union, at the first post-adjustment on the 12th, the NLRC proposed as a mediation plan "maintaining OPI based on 20% economic value added (EVA) (cap 50%)" along with a "special reward using 12% of operating profit if the DS institutional sector achieves No. 1 in sales and operating profit."
By contrast, on the 17th, management reportedly proposed an OPI scheme based on "10% operating profit or 20% EVA," together with a "separate compensation plan using 9–10% of operating profit if the DS institutional sector achieves at least 200 trillion won in operating profit." The application period also reportedly changed from "continued application upon achieving similar business performance" to "re-discussion after three years." The union sees this as effectively a step back from the original mediation plan.
The union argues that management's stance hardened after the government publicly raised the possibility of invoking emergency arbitration. Internal union notices reportedly continued to criticize that "the company has brought back a plan that is even more backtracked than the NLRC mediation proposal" and that it is "using emergency arbitration like a weapon to pressure the union."
Still, some analysis says internal opinion is not moving entirely in one direction. On some anonymous boards, skepticism has emerged, such as "fatigue is growing as the strike drags on" and "isn't this turning into an emotional fight rather than yielding practical gains?"
Even so, the hard-line mood is not easing easily. Although the court partially granted Samsung Electronics' request for an injunction to ban illegal industrial action, the union reaffirmed that it will push ahead with the general strike as planned.
Law firm Majung, which represents supra-enterprise unions, said in a statement, "The court accepted some of management's claims on scope, but upheld the union's claims on staffing," adding, "the general strike scheduled for the 21st will proceed without a hitch." Within the union, reactions such as "even if the provisional damages are 100 million won per day, the individual burden is not large when divided among all union members" are being shared, indicating that the resolve to press ahead with the general strike remains.
However, some in the industry say that, with the court's partial grant and the government's mention of possible emergency arbitration, the momentum for the general strike could weaken faster than expected, or internal fatigue could grow if the standoff becomes protracted.