SEOUL, May 28 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics’ largest labor union is rapidly losing members in the aftermath of a contentious wage agreement that exposed deepening rifts between the company’s semiconductor and device businesses, prompting the union to adopt a separate “two-track” bargaining structure for its divisions.
Samsung Group Labor Union’s Samsung Electronics branch, the company’s largest and majority union, said Thursday its membership fell to 69,575 as of 10 a.m. from more than 76,000 during wage negotiations.
The decline came after Samsung Electronics concluded this year’s wage negotiations with a compensation framework heavily favoring semiconductor employees in the Device Solutions (DS) division, fueling backlash among workers in the Device eXperience (DX) division, which oversees smartphones, TVs and home appliances.
The outflow has raised concerns that the union could eventually lose its status as the majority union, weakening its legal bargaining authority and leverage in negotiations with management.
The union initially secured majority status and legal employee representative rights from the Ministry of Employment and Labor in April. However, maintaining that status requires around 64,500 members, or roughly half of Samsung Electronics’ current workforce.
If the union loses that status, its legal legitimacy and bargaining power in future negotiations could weaken sharply. The organization also risks becoming a DS-centered union as compensation tensions widen between Samsung’s semiconductor and non-semiconductor businesses.
Meanwhile, rival unions have continued to gain members as the largest union’s membership declined. Membership in the National Samsung Electronics Union rose to around 20,000, while Samsung Electronics Labor Union Donghaeng grew to roughly 16,000.
The voting results underscored the widening divide between Samsung’s DS and DX divisions over the wage deal. Within the majority union, 80.6 percent of members, or 44,606 workers, voted in favor of the agreement. But approval in the National Samsung Electronics Union stood at 21.1 percent, with only 1,536 members backing the deal.
In response to the backlash, union chief Choi Seung-ho said “To better reflect each division’s specific conditions and pending issues, our future negotiations will operate under a ‘two-track’ system separating the DS and DX divisions within the union,” adding that the union leadership would also be split between the two divisions, with five executives assigned to DS and three to DX.
For the DS division, the union said it plans to closely review the financial conditions of loss-making non-memory businesses such as System LSI and foundry operations while pressing management to present a credible turnaround vision.
The union also capped executive position allowances at a maximum total of 5 million won following criticism that some executives were effectively receiving overlapping compensation alongside regular salaries.
Meanwhile, the union will hold a confidence vote on Choi’s leadership on June 17 after he faced criticism over remarks seen as fueling tensions between DS and DX workers during the negotiations. Choi said he would accept responsibility for mistakes made during the negotiations.
“I will humbly accept the members’ judgment,” he said.
He added that the union would reorganize around preparations for the 2027 wage agreement and the new DS-DX operating structure, saying, “We will do our best to deliver a more favorable outcome in the next round of negotiations.”
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