Samsung Electronics employees arrive at the Suwon plant on May 22. The union is conducting a vote on the provisional wage negotiation agreement today. [Photo: Yonhap News]
The Samsung Electronics Union has commenced a vote among its members regarding this year's provisional wage negotiation agreement. The outcome of this vote will determine the legal validity of the agreement, drawing significant attention both inside and outside the company.
According to industry sources, the joint negotiation team of Samsung Electronics began the online vote on the provisional agreement at 2:12 PM on May 22.
Voting will continue for six days, concluding at 10 AM on May 27. For the agreement to be approved, a majority of participating union members must vote in favor. Voting rights are granted to members who completed their registration by 2 PM the previous day.
The vote was initially scheduled to start at 2 PM but was delayed by about 12 minutes due to server overload on the union's website, beginning instead at 2:12 PM.
Within less than 10 minutes of the vote's start, the participation rate among union members surpassed 25.66%.
A key point of the provisional agreement is the allocation of 10.5% of operating profit to fund a 'special management performance bonus' for the semiconductor (DS) division. As a result, the memory business unit, which is driving overall company performance, is estimated to receive up to 600 million won in bonuses, including the special management performance bonus and existing excess profit bonuses (OPI).
In contrast, non-memory divisions such as foundry and system LSI, which are experiencing poor performance, are expected to receive a minimum of 160 million won in special management performance bonuses, based on a 40% common fund distribution from the DS division.
Given that a significant portion of union members belong to the memory business unit, the outlook for approval appears favorable. However, there are opposing sentiments among members from non-semiconductor divisions and the mobile and consumer electronics (DX) sectors, which could influence the outcome.
The union leadership has stated that they will stake their positions on the vote's outcome. Chairman Choi Seung-ho remarked, "If the provisional agreement is rejected, I will accept that as a failure to satisfy our members. In that case, I will delegate future negotiation rights to the remaining leadership and hold a vote of confidence regarding my position as chairman."
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.