The union has demanded nothing for the workers making phones and TVs.
Inside one of the world's most powerful technology companies, a labor movement is confronting a question as old as collective action itself: who does solidarity actually serve? Samsung Electronics' majority union in South Korea, representing nearly 75,000 workers, is fracturing along divisional lines after leadership crafted strike demands that would deliver extraordinary bonuses to semiconductor employees while offering nothing to the workers who build the smartphones and televisions. More than 2,500 of those overlooked workers have resigned from the union in protest, raising a deeper tension between democratic majority rule and the ethical obligation to represent all members.
- In just ten days, withdrawal requests on the union's website surged from a trickle to over 1,000 in a single day — a pace that signals not frustration but rupture.
- The Device Experience division, already watching its operating profit collapse 36 percent year-over-year, discovered its union was negotiating bonuses worth $408,000 per chip employee while filing no demands on their behalf.
- Semiconductor workers control roughly 80 percent of union membership, giving them the votes to set the agenda and proceed with strike plans regardless of how many consumer electronics workers walk out.
- The union has scheduled an 18-day strike beginning May 21, warning it could cost Samsung up to 30 trillion won — but a hollowed-out membership risks hollowing out the leverage behind that threat.
- Leadership's attempt to incentivize strike participation with cash payments, after already raising dues fivefold during strike periods, has deepened the sense among departing workers that the institution no longer belongs to them.
Samsung Electronics' majority union in South Korea is fracturing from within, as more than 2,500 workers from the Device Experience division — the arm responsible for smartphones, televisions, and consumer electronics — resigned their membership in the span of roughly ten days in late April. What had been a quiet trickle of withdrawals suddenly surged to over 1,000 in a single day, exposing a structural crisis at the heart of one of the country's most significant labor organizations.
The source of the rupture is a strike strategy built almost entirely around the interests of one group. The union's leadership is drawn predominantly from Samsung's semiconductor division, which accounts for about 80 percent of the union's 74,750 members. The demands they have put forward reflect that dominance: a performance bonus equal to 15 percent of the chip division's operating profit, with no ceiling — a formula that would yield an average payout of roughly 600 million won, or about $408,000, per semiconductor employee. For Device Experience workers, the union has negotiated nothing.
The slight lands with particular force because the consumer electronics division is already under financial strain, its operating profit down 36 percent in the first quarter — partly because it purchases chips from Samsung's own semiconductor arm at prices that compress its margins. Workers in that division are watching their unit struggle while union leadership pursues windfalls for the chip side. The union's recent move to offer cash incentives for strike participation, alongside a fivefold increase in dues during strike periods, has only deepened the sense of alienation.
Despite the exodus, the union's semiconductor-dominated majority retains the votes to proceed. An 18-day full-scale strike is scheduled to begin May 21, with union leadership warning it could cost Samsung up to 30 trillion won. Whether that threat carries real weight now depends on a simpler question: how many more workers will leave before the walkout begins.
Samsung Electronics' labor movement in South Korea is tearing itself apart from the inside. In the span of just ten days in late April, more than 2,500 workers walked away from the company's majority union—a hemorrhage of membership that exposed a fundamental fracture: the union's leadership has built its entire strike strategy around demands that benefit one division while ignoring the others.
The numbers tell the story of an organization losing control of its own base. Withdrawal requests on the union's website, which had been trickling in at fewer than 100 per day the month before, suddenly spiked to over 1,000 on a single Wednesday. The exodus came almost entirely from the Device Experience division—the arm of Samsung that makes smartphones, televisions, and consumer electronics. That division accounts for roughly 15,000 of the union's 74,750 members, or about one-fifth of the total. In just over a week, approximately 15 percent of that entire group had quit.
The root cause is structural and bitter. The union's leadership is dominated by employees from the Device Solutions division, which runs Samsung's semiconductor business. That chip division makes up about 80 percent of the union's membership and has effectively set the agenda. The demands the union has put forward are laser-focused on semiconductor workers: a performance bonus equal to 15 percent of the chip division's operating profit, and the permanent removal of any cap on those bonuses. If Samsung accepted this proposal, it would mean an average payout of roughly 600 million won—about $408,000—per semiconductor employee. For the Device Experience workers, the union has demanded nothing.
The timing makes the snub feel especially cruel. The consumer electronics division is struggling. Its operating profit fell 36 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, partly because it has to buy chips from Samsung's own semiconductor arm at prices that squeeze its margins. The smartphone and TV workers are watching their division bleed money while the union leadership negotiates bonuses for the chip side. The union has even extended its chip-focused demands to other units like foundry and System LSI, regardless of whether those divisions are actually profitable. To make matters worse, the union recently tried to recruit strike participants by offering 3 million won—roughly $2,000—to anyone who would commit to at least 15 days of strike activity. This came after the union had already raised dues during strike periods from 10,000 won to 50,000 won, ostensibly to build a strike fund.
The departures represent a crisis of representation. A union that claims to speak for 74,750 workers is now visibly failing to represent a fifth of them. Yet the mathematics of the situation suggest the leadership will push forward anyway. Because Device Experience workers make up only 20 percent of the membership, the union's semiconductor-dominated leadership has the votes to proceed with its plans regardless of how many consumer electronics workers leave.
The union has announced an 18-day full-scale strike scheduled to begin May 21 and run through June 7. It is demanding the removal of the bonus cap and greater transparency in how bonuses are calculated. The union has warned that such a walkout could cost Samsung up to 30 trillion won—approximately $20.4 billion. But the internal fracture raises a question that cuts deeper than any single labor dispute: can a union that is hemorrhaging members from one of its major divisions actually hold together long enough to execute a strike of that scale? The answer may depend on whether the departures slow, accelerate, or stop altogether in the weeks ahead.
Citações Notáveis
The union has demanded that Samsung pay semiconductor employees performance bonuses equivalent to 15 percent of the chip division's operating profit and permanently remove the bonus cap, but made no separate demands for Device Experience workers.— Union demands (reported)
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why would workers voluntarily leave their union right before a major strike? Doesn't that weaken their own position?
It does, which is exactly the point. These workers aren't leaving because they oppose strikes in general. They're leaving because they feel the union has abandoned them. The leadership negotiated bonuses for chip workers but nothing for the people making phones and TVs.
But if they stay in the union, wouldn't they benefit from whatever the strike wins?
In theory, yes. But the union is asking them to pay higher dues during the strike—50,000 won instead of 10,000—and offering only 3 million won to those who actually participate. Meanwhile, chip workers are being promised $408,000 bonuses. The math doesn't work for them.
So the union leadership just miscalculated how angry the consumer electronics workers would be?
It's more structural than that. The chip division is 80 percent of the membership, so they control the votes. The leadership probably assumed they could ignore the other 20 percent because they don't need them. But you can't ignore a fifth of your base and expect them to stay.
What happens if the strike goes forward with fewer members?
It becomes weaker. A strike's power comes from the number of people who stop working. If 2,500 more people leave before May 21, Samsung faces less disruption, and the union has less leverage to win what it's demanding.
Is there any way the union leadership could have prevented this?
They could have negotiated demands that included something for the consumer electronics division, or at least acknowledged their struggles. Instead, they built a strategy that said: your division is losing money, and we're not going to help. That's a choice, and workers responded by leaving.