Membership collapses within two weeks of May 20 wage deal
Peak of 76,000 members falls to 58,270 by Thursday
Union had won majority status in April for first time in Samsung's history
Samsung Electronics' largest union, the cross-enterprise labor union's Samsung Electronics branch, has lost its majority status just two weeks after reaching a wage agreement with management.
The collapse in membership is attributed to a wave of resignations — first from workers in the finished-product division who were dissatisfied with the deal, followed by employees in the non-memory semiconductor units, including the System LSI and foundry divisions.
As of 3 p.m. Thursday, total membership in the cross-enterprise union stood at 58,270, according to industry sources. Samsung Electronics reported 128,881 employees at the end of last year, meaning the union's membership falls well short of the 64,440 needed to hold a majority.
In January, the union had claimed its membership exceeded half of the total workforce and asked the company to begin the headcount verification process needed to confirm its status as the workers' representative.
In mid-April, the Ministry of Employment and Labor officially recognized the union as the majority union and legal workers' representative — the first time a single union had achieved that status in Samsung Electronics' history.
Membership had continued to grow throughout wage negotiations, at one point surpassing 76,000. But after the wage deal was struck on May 20, disgruntled members began leaving, and the 70,000 threshold was breached by May 28. Another 10,000 departures followed, stripping the union of its majority status in less than two months.
Most departing members appear to have moved to the second- and third-largest unions. The National Samsung Electronics Union saw its membership rise from 16,000 on May 20 to 20,968 by Thursday. The Samsung Electronics Union Donghang, which had just over 2,300 members in early May, surged nearly tenfold to 20,115.
The exodus is largely driven by members in the Device eXperience (DX) division — which handles mobile devices and home appliances — shifting en masse to the National Samsung Electronics Union and Donghang.
Within the Device Solutions (DS) semiconductor division, the divide is equally stark. Based on an assumed annual operating profit of 300 trillion won (about $198 billion) for the DS division this year, roughly 31.5 trillion won would be available for performance bonuses. Of that pool, 40 percent is distributed equally among all DS employees, while the remaining 60 percent is allocated based on each business unit's earnings.
Under that formula, memory chip division employees would receive special performance bonuses of around 590 million won each, while workers in the loss-making non-memory units are expected to receive roughly 162 million won.
Employees in the System LSI and foundry units have been leaving the cross-enterprise union in growing numbers after learning their special performance bonuses would be more than three times smaller than those of memory chip colleagues.
DX division employees will receive only company shares worth about 6 million won per person — less than their DS counterparts — and have pushed back sharply, with some requesting a meeting with DX division head Roh Tae-moon.
The cross-enterprise union, which led this round of wage negotiations, had been able to appoint labor committee members directly and chair the labor-management council by virtue of its majority status. Losing that status significantly weakens its representational authority.
The union will now need to coordinate with the National Samsung Electronics Union, Donghang and others for next year's wage and collective bargaining talks. Under the bargaining channel unification procedure conducted in September 2024, the National Samsung Electronics Union retains its status as the designated bargaining representative through February 2027.
Earlier, cross-enterprise union chairman Choi Seung-ho said he would pursue a two-track bargaining structure separating the DS and DX division executive bodies, and hold a general assembly on June 17 to put his leadership to a confidence vote.
joze@heraldcorp.com
