Samsung Electronics labor and management dramatically signed a tentative agreement with about 1 hour and 30 minutes left before the start of a general strike. While the strike risk will be fully resolved only after a vote by union members, the semiconductor industry is saying that "the worst-case scenario has been averted for now." Attention is also growing on Choi Seung-ho, Chairperson of the Samsung Group supra-enterprise labor union's Samsung Electronics chapter, who drove the company to the brink of the largest general strike since Samsung Electronics was founded.
According to multiple Samsung Electronics employees on the 22nd, Choi was not hard-line enough to insist on pushing ahead with a strike despite worsening public opinion and government mediation from the outset. In April 2023, he even appeared in a Samsung Electronics Semiconductor Newsroom promotional video, and he was closer to a rank-and-file employee who performed routine tasks with deep affection for the company. A Samsung Electronics DS (semiconductor) institutional sector employee who worked with Choi directly or indirectly at the time said, "He did show some sensitivity on compensation-related matters, but there were no issues in terms of interpersonal relationships or work," adding, "He was a model colleague who looked after those around him and steadily pursued self-improvement."
In that video, Choi explained, "I handle system work in foundry (contract semiconductor manufacturing) S5 manufacturing." He helped ensure that wafers were turned into chips on schedule and to quality standards. He also said he developed and operated automated systems to ensure that semiconductors entrusted by clients were produced at consistent quality, and he handled training for rank-and-file employees. This employee became the majority union Chairperson who, in three years, drove Samsung Electronics to the verge of a general strike.
◇ "Consistently raised issues on the in-house bulletin board… joined the union as the company showed no change"
Choi began focusing in earnest on union activities after taking the post of public relations director of the supra-enterprise union in July 2024. He was also affiliated with the National Samsung Electronics Labor Union (Jeonsamno) in 2021, but his scope of activity is said to have been smaller than now.
After serving about a year as the supra-enterprise union's public relations director, Choi ran last November to become the 2nd Chairperson. At that time, his affiliation was specified as DS institutional sector, Memory Business Unit, Pyeongtaek Campus, Fab 3 (P3). In his candidacy introduction, he wrote, "I started posting on the in-house bulletin board because I wanted employees to have a better work life," adding, "Beyond simply writing posts, I began meeting various people and requesting improvements on unreasonable parts."
Born in 1991, Choi, as public relations director of the supra-enterprise union, filed a class action against the company seeking to include fixed overtime allowances, personal pensions, and holiday travel expenses in ordinary wages. His pledges included excluding political leanings, securing the status of employee representative, bargaining tailored to the characteristics of each institutional sector, transparent union operations, and establishing the foundation of the labor union. This orientation is seen to have influenced recruitment of members. An industry official said, "Millennials and Gen Z have an aversion to overly politicized unions and respond sensitively to personal compensation," adding, "Choi likely knew this well and crafted his pledges accordingly."
◇ Fatigue with Jeonsamno, distrust of executives, and inferior compensation compared with competitors
As recently as September last year, the supra-enterprise union had only about 6,000 members. But last month it rapidly expanded to 75,000. After Choi became the union head, it achieved majority-union status. That is why there is internal evaluation at Samsung Electronics that "employees were able to unite because Choi did his part." Although the ranks have thinned as DX (finished goods) employees increasingly left recently, membership still remains above 70,000.
However, the prevailing view is that this growth of the supra-enterprise union stems more from external factors than from Choi's personal capability. After Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong declared an end to no-union management in 2020, unions sprang up across the Samsung Group. Several unions were formed at Samsung Electronics as well, and among them, Jeonsamno, which had 35,000 members, led talks with management as the largest union.
In the 2025 wage and collective bargaining, Jeonsamno showed various problems, such as a "backroom deal" to set a higher performance raise for the standing executive committee through a separate agreement with management, and "lack of internal communication." As employees' trust in Jeonsamno declined, the supra-enterprise union, centered on Choi, capitalized on this to attract members. The supra-enterprise union overtook Jeonsamno in October last year to secure the status of the largest union.
Relative deprivation over the compensation gap with SK hynix added fuel to this trend. When the competitor received an unusually large performance bonus last year, complaints surged among Millennials and Gen Z members who prioritize practical compensation. Naturally, interest grew in the supra-enterprise union, which had taken root as an alternative to Jeonsamno inside the company, and Choi organized employees' grievances into the language of ▲ transparency in the performance-bonus formula ▲ abolition of the performance-bonus cap ▲ preventing the outflow of science and engineering talent.
Dissatisfaction over the compensation gap between executives and employees is also cited as a background for the rise of the supra-enterprise union. During the semiconductor downturn in 2023, the DS institutional sector posted an annual loss of 14.88 trillion won, and the excess profit performance bonus (OPI) for 2023, paid in early 2024, was set at 0%. According to Samsung Electronics' 2023 business report, Kyung Kye-hyun, then head of the DS institutional sector, received 2.403 billion won in compensation. This cemented the perception that "when times are tough, only employees share the pain, while executives take the performance and compensation first."
Choi's slogans to institutionalize and make transparent the performance-bonus system and abolish its cap could be framed as raising the issue that Samsung Electronics' internal compensation system no longer earns the trust of its members. On the 23rd of last month at a large rally in Pyeongtaek, Choi said, "The majority union was not created because we did well; it was the result of the company failing to respond to employees' complaints."
◇ Defying Samsung Electronics' "performance-based" approach… condemned by the public throughout the struggle
Leveraging its status as the majority union, the supra-enterprise union pressured Samsung Electronics to the brink of a general strike and drew out a tentative agreement on 2026 wages and performance bonuses. The tentative deal centers on maintaining the existing OPI while creating a special management performance bonus for the DS institutional sector. The DS special management performance bonus will be distributed 40% at the institutional sector level and 60% at the business unit level. Even deficit business units like Foundry and System LSI will receive larger rewards than before.
However, in the process of winning this, Choi caused many problems and drew public outrage. Internally, many employees say they "feel betrayed" by Choi, who had advocated "horizontal communication" and a "union that embraces all business units."
In a YouTube live broadcast in March, Choi said, "If there are those who work for the company, we will keep a list and will guide them first in any forced transfers or dismissals that will require consultation with the union later." He browbeat colleagues to amplify the strike's impact. On the 18th, he posted in a union chat room, "Once (the current situation) wraps up, let's consider splitting the union," adding, "Frankly, I can't stand DX," before deleting the post.
Choi's moral laxity is also cited as a problem. Right after holding a large rally at the Pyeongtaek semiconductor establishment on the 23rd of last month, Choi left for a weeklong vacation to Thailand. When he posted a hard-line statement on the union website targeting non-participants in the strike while on vacation, criticism emerged within the union that "the leadership is stoking conflict from a resort while demanding sacrifice from members."
In the industry, Choi's rise is interpreted not as an individual outburst but as a result produced by Samsung Electronics' internal compensation system. As Millennials and Gen Z directly challenged the performance-based and top-down organizational culture, the figure of Choi came to the fore.
However, public condemnation continues over the fact that he clung to a hard-line path focusing only on "his own interests," without considering broader public sentiment or the social impact of the strike. A Samsung Electronics employee familiar with the internal affairs of the union said, "An inexperienced Chairperson Choi and a law firm that colluded with him under the pretext of offering advice to sharpen conflict with management both played a part in turning the supra-enterprise union into a 'public enemy,'" adding, "Management, which has consistently ignored the demands of Millennials and Gen Z employees, and the union, which lost its justification by failing to see the bigger picture, both need to reflect."