Internal turmoil! Employees in Samsung’s amorphous chip division file for a court injunction over “unfair bonus distribution,” refusing to be treated as second-class citizens

Samsung Electronics' small union, mainly representing the DX Digital Experience division, has officially filed for an injunction with the Korean court, requesting a suspension of the upcoming vote on the preliminary salary agreement, citing that employees in the chip division will receive an average bonus of up to 513 million Korean won, while DX Digital Experience division employees will only get 6 million Korean won, a gap of over 85 times.
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The internal salary battle at Samsung Electronics has heated up rapidly on the eve of the vote deadline. According to Bloomberg, the smallest union, mainly representing DX Digital Experience division employees, filed for an injunction with the Korean court on Tuesday, requesting a halt to the final vote scheduled for this Wednesday (May 27).

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

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

Small union disqualified from voting after withdrawal

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 affected 48k employees.

The agreement includes an average 6.2% salary increase, a housing loan plan up to 500 million Korean won, and an annual bonus of about 40 trillion Korean won (around $340k) for 78k 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However, the smallest union had already withdrawn from the joint negotiation committee during the negotiations, citing that the demands of DX division employees were not sufficiently addressed. 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 stance 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 increase by 10,000 in a single day

Before the preliminary agreement was signed, DX union members numbered about 3,000; 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, with the explicit goal of ensuring these members qualify to vote in the final ballot, thereby increasing the chances of rejecting 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 eligibility 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.