Samsung Electronics’ third-largest union, the “Same-Job Union” (approximately 13,000 members, mainly from the smartphone, TV, and home appliance divisions), announced on May 29 that it will apply to a Korean court for a suspension of the wage agreement that Samsung reached with the two largest unions last week and which was approved by a vote this week. The core of the dispute lies in the stark disparity in bonuses: employees in the memory chip division are projected to receive performance bonuses of around 600 million won (approximately 2.7 million yuan), while employees in non-chip divisions will receive only about 6 million won in company stock — a difference of more than a hundredfold. Legal counsel for the Same-Job Union stated that it will submit a revised injunction application next week, and expects the court to rule within a month. Previously, the union’s first injunction request, which sought to block the chip division’s vote, was rejected by the court.
The agreement reached last week had already averted a major strike originally planned to last 18 days, which could have impacted the global semiconductor supply chain. However, internal distribution conflicts have now surfaced. The membership of Samsung’s Same-Job Union has rapidly expanded from about 2,600 to 13,000 recently, a trend that itself reflects the dissatisfaction of non-chip employees.