Samsung just posted record Q1 profit, and its workers are about to walk out anyway. More than 50,000 employees plan to strike starting May 21 after Samsung's late push to keep them at their desks hit a wall this week.
The standoff is the biggest labor test Samsung has faced in years, and it lands at the worst possible moment for the chip business.
The dispute isn't about base pay - it's about how Samsung shares its biggest wins.
The union wants performance bonuses tied to 15% of operating profit, with the cap on payouts removed entirely. Samsung's offer includes a one-time 2026 payment plus a formula based on either 10% of operating profit or 20% of economic value added, alongside a separate uncapped reward program.
Union chief Choi Seung-ho said the group will "properly exercise the rights guaranteed by the Constitution." The company says it's still open to talks, but neither side has actually moved.
The friction is sharper because the chip unit just delivered record results, and workers want a bigger cut of that upside. Management isn't willing to commit to it on paper.
There's also a rift inside the union itself. Some workers in Samsung's Device eXperience unit, which builds phones and TVs, are pushing back on the strike because it's being driven by the chip side of the company.
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Industry groups estimate Samsung could face up to 100 trillion won in direct and indirect losses if the walkout runs through June 7, which works out to roughly $67 billion. That's bigger than the entire market cap of most S&P 500 companies.
The chip business is the piece of Korea's economy nobody wants idled. Samsung's Device Solutions unit builds the memory chips inside phones, data centers, and AI servers worldwide, including the high-bandwidth memory parts that power generative AI.
Customers waiting on supply are already nervous, and the government is paying attention. Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said emergency arbitration, a 30-day pause on the strike, would be "unavoidable" if workers walk out as planned.
Samsung has also asked the Suwon District Court to block parts of the strike on safety grounds, with a ruling expected by Wednesday. Legal observers say any injunction will likely be narrow and let most of the walkout go ahead.
Samsung just reported 57.23 trillion won in Q1 operating profit, and the union saw those numbers and decided the share workers get isn't big enough.
Vice Chair Jun Young-hyun has been telling executives not to get comfortable with the chip market rebound. The same warning seems to apply inside the building.
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