Jung Da-hyun is a reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues in Korea, including foreign residents, education, environment and politics. Driven by a deep interest in people’s stories, she focuses on investigative and feature reporting through direct interviews and field coverage. She received the Amnesty International Korea Media Award for her “Deepfake Crisis at Schools” series. Reach her at dahyun08@koreatimes.co.kr. Always open to hearing your stories.
Samsung Electronics strike raises concerns over deepening labor polarization
Members from a Samsung Electronics shareholder activist group hold a press conference in Yongsan District, Seoul, Tuesday, calling on the company's labor unions to withdraw their planned strike. Yonhap
By Jung Da-hyun
Bonus demands seen as break from past labor dispute norms, experts say
Concerns are rising within the labor sector that a planned strike by Samsung Electronics’ unions could deepen Korea's labor market polarization, as their demands signal a notable departure from conventional labor-management negotiations.
The Samsung Electronics unions are set to begin a general strike on May 21, after tensions escalated over efforts to institutionalize the company’s bonus system.
The union is calling for a legally binding guarantee to allocate 15 percent of operating profit to performance-based bonuses, along with the removal of the current cap on payouts — demands that management has rejected.
However, the unions’ focus on performance-based bonuses marks a sharp break from past labor negotiations, where such incentives have rarely been a core bargaining issue.
“Disputes over the allocation of performance bonuses are uncommon in established labor-management practices,” said Choi Young-ki, a professor of business administration at Hallym University.
He added that the scale of the proposed profit-sharing is also unusual, noting that wage negotiations and strikes have traditionally focused on base pay and working conditions, with performance bonuses not strictly treated as compensation for labor.
“While some portion can be considered labor compensation, demanding a share of company profits simply because the firm performed well was rare in past labor negotiations,” he said.
According to Choi, the growing push to make performance-based bonuses a central bargaining issue — and a potential trigger for strikes — among unions at major conglomerates could signal a new phase in Korea’s labor-management relations.
“Given the current state of Korea’s labor market, where polarization is already severe, this carries the risk of pushing that divide to even greater extremes,” he said.
Criticism is also emerging that the scale of the profit-sharing demands weakens its public appeal due to the absence of a clear social justification.
“As performance-based payouts reach unprecedented levels, it can create the perception that workers are seeking in a single round what others might earn over a lifetime, potentially fueling a sense of relative deprivation among ordinary workers,” said Kim Sung-hee, a professor at Korea University and a researcher at the Institute for Labor and Society.
He added that the issue raises broader questions about how concentrated corporate profits should be distributed more widely across society.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions declined to comment, saying it would be inappropriate to issue a position as the unions remain in the middle of negotiations ahead of potential collective action.
Meanwhile, internal tension within the unions is also deepening as differing positions between Samsung Electronics’ two divisions — Device Solutions (DS), in charge of chipmaking, and Device Experience (DX), in charge of smartphones, TVs and other devices — raise the prospect of a legal battle.
DX-affiliated union members, who say they have been sidelined in talks, filed for an injunction on Friday to halt negotiations, challenging the representativeness of the DS-led majority union.
The filing argues that the enterprise-level union coalition, centered on the DS division, lacks the legitimacy to represent the full membership across divisions.
If accepted, the move would expose the union to dual legal risks ahead of the strike, alongside management’s injunction to block collective action.
Samsung Electronics earlier filed an injunction with the Suwon District Court seeking to ban the looming walkout. The court is expected to issue its ruling by Wednesday, a day before the planned strike.
Samsung Electronics, meanwhile, has sought to prevent disruptions to semiconductor safety facilities, wafer contamination and the occupation of key sites.