Tensions are rising inside Samsung Electronics over a tentative agreement on 2026 wages and bonuses signed by labor and management. Discontent that compensation enhancements concentrated on the DS (semiconductors) institutional sector—particularly the memory business unit—has spread among employees in the DX (finished goods) institutional sector. As a result, membership in the Samsung Electronics Labor Union Donghaeng (Donghaeng union), centered on the DX institutional sector, increased from about 2,200 to 12,800. Many DX employees joined en masse to vote down the tentative agreement. But the supra-enterprise union within the Samsung Group, the Samsung Electronics chapter (supra-enterprise union), which holds the bargaining rights, made it clear that "the Donghaeng union has no voting rights."
The Samsung Electronics union will hold a member vote on the tentative agreement on 2026 wages and bonuses from 2 p.m. on the 22nd. The risk of a general strike at Samsung Electronics will be resolved only if the vote, which runs until 10 a.m. on the 27th, passes. Voting rights are granted only to members whose names are on the union roster. If a majority of members participate and a majority of those vote in favor, the tentative agreement passes. If it fails, labor and management must resume negotiations.
An employee in the Samsung Electronics DX institutional sector said, "There should be pride in being a 'Samsung man,' but everyone is fixated only on a turf war," adding, "We don't even have the right to vote on the tentative agreement, so there is no way to express our 'relative deprivation' and 'anger.'"
◇ "Donghaeng union membership surges by 10,000 ahead of the vote"
DX employees' dissatisfaction with the tentative agreement showed up as a surge in union membership. The Donghaeng union had about 2,200 members as recently as last month, but that number has now jumped to 12,800. After the Donghaeng union guided that "those who join by 2 p.m. on the 21st can participate in the vote on the tentative agreement," it appears many DX employees signed up.
However, the supra-enterprise union sent an official letter to the Donghaeng union that day formally rejecting its request for voting rights. The supra-enterprise union said the Donghaeng union had notified on the 4th that it was ending its participation in the joint bargaining committee and therefore lost its status as a participating union. Because this tentative agreement was concluded on the 20th between the joint bargaining committee and management, voting rights belong only to members of the supra-enterprise union and the National Samsung Electronics Labor Union (Jeonsamno) who were on the joint bargaining committee on the day of the agreement.
The supra-enterprise union, Jeonsamno, and the Donghaeng union formed a joint bargaining committee in Nov. last year and have been negotiating with management over 2026 wages. After talks broke down in Feb., the Donghaeng union joined the two unions in forming a joint struggle headquarters and planned a general strike. During this process, the Donghaeng union declared it was leaving the alliance, citing that "there was no response at all to proposals and requests for the rights and interests of all members, not just those in specific fields."
Initially the bargaining representative for wages, Jeonsamno delegated bargaining and signing authority to the supra-enterprise union, which held a majority, during a post-mediation process between labor and management arranged by the government. A Jeonsamno official said, "The scope of who gets voting rights on the tentative agreement was decided by the supra-enterprise union."
DX employees tried to express opposition by joining the Donghaeng union, but it is likely their votes will not be reflected in the actual balloting. In response, the Donghaeng union is protesting, calling the supra-enterprise union's decision to exclude it from the vote a "flip-flop." The Donghaeng union claims the supra-enterprise union sent emails to each chapter after reaching a deal with management to request a vote and asked that the membership rosters be fixed as of 2 p.m. on the 21st.
The Donghaeng union leadership held a press conference in front of Samsung Electronics Suwon Digital City that day, saying, "This wage bargaining has effectively turned into bonus bargaining centered on the semiconductor memory business unit," and announced it would campaign to defeat the tentative agreement. Regardless of the supra-enterprise union's decision to exclude it from the vote, the Donghaeng union plans to conduct its own yes-or-no vote among its members.
◇ 600 million won vs 6 million won… Internal discontent soars
The core of the tentative agreement is to keep the existing Over-Profit Incentive (OPI) while separately creating a DS institutional sector special management performance bonus. The funding for the DS special management performance bonus was set at 10.5% of business performance selected by labor and management by agreement. Including the OPI funds, the bonus pool for DS employees amounts to about 12% of business performance. The DS special management performance bonus will be paid entirely in company stock after tax. The allocation structure is 40% at the institutional sector level and 60% at the business unit level. The payout rate for shared organizations will be calculated at 70% of the memory business unit's payout rate.
The problem is that this compensation scheme is effectively built around the memory business unit. Based on an annual salary of 80 million won, a memory business unit employee could receive around 600 million won in bonuses, according to estimates. There is also analysis that even employees in loss-making non-memory units such as System LSI and foundry could receive bonuses averaging in the 200 million won range.
By contrast, the DX institutional sector, which handles smartphones, home appliances, and TVs, and the Customer Service (CSS) business team were limited to company stock worth 6 million won. With forecasts widely expecting DX institutional sector earnings to remain weak this year, the existing OPI size is also likely to be set low. As a result, internal sentiment on the tentative agreement vote is reportedly "memory in favor, non-memory mixed, DX opposed."
Choi Seung-ho, Chairperson of the supra-enterprise union, posted a notice just before the vote, saying, "We will treat the members' vote as a report card," and, "If it passes, we will build out the organization to improve what's needed and make a better union." He added, "If it fails, we will delegate the 2026 bargaining to the remaining leadership and hold a confidence vote."