Conflicto interno! Empleados del departamento de chips de Samsung solicitan una orden judicial por "distribución injusta de bonificaciones": rechazan ser ciudadanos de segunda clase

Samsung Electronics, a small union mainly representing the DX Digital Experience division, has officially filed an injunction with the Korean court, requesting a suspension of the vote on the preliminary salary agreement, citing that employees in the chip division will receive an average bonus of up to 513 million won, while DX Digital Experience division employees will only get 6 million won, a gap of over 85 times.
(Background: Financial Times: China "bans Nvidia RTX 5090D V2" gaming chip imports, Huang Renxun's visit to China ends with a backstab)
(Additional background: Goldman Sachs CEO Solomon: AI "job apocalypse" is an exaggerated panic)

The internal wage battle at Samsung Electronics has heated up rapidly on the eve of the agreement vote deadline. According to Bloomberg, the smallest union, mainly representing DX Digital Experience division employees, filed an injunction with the Korean court on Tuesday, requesting a halt to the final vote scheduled for Wednesday, May 27.

The union's core demand is only one: This agreement is too skewed in favor of chip employees and unfair to the consumer electronics division.

Based on the proposed terms and the projected 2026 Samsung operating profit estimates, the average bonus for semiconductor division employees this year is about 513 million won (approximately $340,000); meanwhile, the figure for DX division employees is only 6 million won, a difference of over 85 times.

The smallest union was disqualified from voting after leaving

It is understood that Samsung Electronics has three unions in total. The largest union, mainly representing the semiconductor division, led months of salary negotiations and reached a preliminary agreement on May 20, successfully averting a strike that could have involved 48,000 employees.

The agreement included an average 6.2% salary adjustment, a housing loan plan of up to 500 million won, and an annual bonus of about 40 trillion won (approximately $26.6 billion) for 78,000 semiconductor division employees.

However, the smallest union had already withdrawn from the joint negotiation committee during the negotiations, citing that the demands of DX division employees were not sufficiently considered. Subsequently, the largest union claimed that once they had left the committee, members of the smallest union were no longer eligible to vote, further intensifying the conflict.

The position of the smallest union is clear: this is not an agreement representing all employees, but a deal tailored for the chip division. Filing for an injunction with the court is the only way to prevent the agreement from being approved before the vote results are finalized.

DX union members increased by 10,000 in a single day

Before the preliminary agreement was signed, the DX union had about 3,000 members; but by Tuesday morning, the number had risen to nearly 13,000, a net increase of over 10,000 in one day. Bloomberg reports that some union members actively called on colleagues to join, explicitly aiming to ensure these members qualify for the final vote, thereby increasing the chances of vetoing the agreement.

However, whether this surge in members can translate into actual voting rights still depends on whether the court accepts the injunction application and whether the largest union recognizes the voting rights of these new members.

As of Monday evening, 87% of eligible members had completed voting, and the agreement only requires a simple majority to pass. Analysts generally expect the agreement to be approved in the end.