The largest labor union at Samsung Electronics (005930) will push to ease bonus penalties imposed on loss-making divisions within the chip business as an agenda item for next year's wage and collective bargaining talks. The measure won approval from eight of every 10 participating members, even after the union told them that bonuses for memory division employees could shrink as a result. The move is seen as an effort to build internal unity ahead of solo negotiations next year by embracing non-memory divisions such as foundry and System LSI.
The Samsung Electronics chapter of the Choheupeop Union, a "supra-enterprise" union that organizes workers across multiple Samsung affiliates, said on the 22nd that 81.03% of members voted in favor of a proposal to revise the "DS loss-making penalty." A total of 33,256 members took part in the vote, held from the 14th through 10 a.m. that day, with 26,947 voting in favor. The union plans to draw up specific demands and include them in its 2027 bargaining agenda.
Members from the memory division accounted for 13,517 of the voters, or 40.6% of the total. Based on those figures, at least 7,208 memory division voters, or 53.3%, are estimated to have voted in favor.
The proposal seeks to soften rules that reduce special performance bonuses for divisions running losses. In May, labor and management reached an agreement on special management bonuses for the Device Solutions division, under which 40% of the bonus is distributed across the division as a whole and the remaining 60% is allocated by individual business unit. Loss-making units, however, receive only 60% of the payout rate applied to shared organizations.
Application of the reduction rule to loss-making units was deferred this year, but under the current agreement it takes effect next year. Union Chairman Choi Seung-ho said that if the revision is adopted, bonuses for employees in the memory division and shared organizations could fall by 10 million to 20 million won after taxes. Whether the rules are actually changed depends on the outcome of next year's negotiations.
Industry watchers read the vote result as reflecting the union's intent to strengthen its grip on bargaining. Last month, the Choheupeop Union restricted eligibility for membership to employees of the chip business, reshaping itself into a semiconductor-focused organization. By now also advocating better treatment for loss-making units, it is seeking to rally both memory and non-memory members.
Commenting on the result, Choi said, "I think this is a decision by members to trust the Choheupeop Union, beyond the proposal itself." He went on to express confidence that the union would secure status as the representative bargaining union during the process of consolidating bargaining channels in December, reaffirming its plan to conduct the 2027 negotiations on its own.