The leading union at Samsung Electronics has put forward a plan that could see members stage an 18-day strike beginning May 21, a move its leadership says would interrupt chip production at the company’s Pyeongtaek campus and amplify existing strains on global semiconductor supply.
Choi Seung-ho, head of the Samsung Electronics Labour Union (SELU), told Reuters the vote underway among union-eligible employees could produce "production disruption." He said the walkout, if approved and executed, could affect about half the output at Samsung’s sprawling semiconductor facility in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul.
Those remarks come as demand from AI data center operations has tightened the semiconductor market, leaving less supply available for industries ranging from automakers and laptop manufacturers to smartphone makers. The union’s warning underscores the possibility that labour action at the world’s largest producer of memory chips would add to existing bottlenecks.
Union leaders say the ballot, which runs until Wednesday, is open to roughly 90,000 unionised workers out of Samsung’s estimated 125,000-strong South Korean workforce. The SELU reports it has around 66,000 members, including about 51,000 from its chip division. Samsung also hosts other, smaller labour unions.
Choi framed the industrial action as a reaction to a widening pay gap between Samsung staff and those at rival firms. He said membership surged after SK Hynix accepted its union’s demands for compensation reforms last September and that more than 100 members have left Samsung in the past three months for companies such as SK Hynix. The SELU describes that deal at SK Hynix as including an uplift to bonus arrangements and a commitment to allocate 10% of operating profit to a bonus pool.
The union is asking for several specific changes to the company’s pay framework: a 7% increase in base wages, elimination of a cap that limits performance pay to 50% of annual base salary, and the creation of a bonus pool tied to operating profit to replace what the union calls an outdated and opaque formula.
Alongside union demands, Samsung has said it has proposed what it described in an internal memo as "unprecedented" compensation terms in attempts to reach a 2026 wage deal. Those proposals reportedly included a 6.2% base pay increase and special bonuses. A Samsung spokesperson told Reuters the company would continue discussions with employees "in a sincere manner."
Company concerns about altering the bonus structure were voiced by an internal official who cautioned that removing the cap on bonuses could complicate the financing of future investments in the capital-intensive, cyclical semiconductor business. That official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the topic is sensitive, added that "if even a single strike halts production lines and damages trust with customers, it could take years" to rebuild relationships.
Observers point to the inexperience of labour relations at Samsung compared with other major Korean conglomerates. Seo Ji-yong, a business administration professor at Sangmyung University, said Samsung historically had fewer union risks than groups such as Hyundai Motor, contributing to a relative lack of expertise in managing industrial relations. He warned that if management fails to respond to union demands, disputes could dampen Samsung’s recent positive earnings momentum.
The SELU provided a comparison intended to illustrate pay disparities. It said a Samsung chip-division employee with a base salary of 76 million won would receive 38 million in performance pay for 2025, an amount the union says is less than a third of the performance-pay figure a similarly compensated SK Hynix employee would qualify for under that company’s bonus scheme. The union also said the gap would widen this year if Samsung’s current bonus arrangement remained unchanged.
Choi argued that improved pay and retention offers could strengthen Samsung’s competitiveness by motivating employees to work harder and remain with the company. He also suggested competing offers from other companies are influencing employee movement, saying that Tesla has been actively recruiting chip designers.
In February, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk encouraged workers in the Korean chip sector to consider jobs at Tesla as the company expands into AI chips for vehicles and robotics.
Samsung reported record fourth-quarter profit in 2025, and analysts expect the company’s annual operating profit to more than quadruple to over 200 trillion won ($134 billion) this year. Those strong results are central to the union’s argument that employees should share more of the industry gains.
The vote over the proposed strike and the broader negotiation over pay and bonus structures could have implications across a range of markets. A disruption at Samsung’s Pyeongtaek complex would not only affect the company’s output but could reverberate through supply chains that depend on memory chips for servers, consumer electronics and automobiles.
Exchange rate used in reporting: $1 = 1,496.7200 won.
Readouts and next steps
If the vote confirms the strike plan, Samsung and its customers will face immediate operational uncertainty linked to possible interruptions at a key memory-chip production site. Samsung’s stated willingness to continue negotiations suggests management is seeking to avoid disruption, while the union’s membership surge and targeted demands signal sustained pressure on compensation structures.