Workers have pointed to rising payouts at SK Hynix, which last year agreed to allocate 10 per cent of its annual operating profit to a performance bonus pool
Tens of thousands of people gathered outside Samsung Electronics Co.’s main chip hub to demand employees get a greater share of profits reaped from the AI boom.
Police told local media about 30,000 people attended the rally in South Korea’s southern city of Pyeongtaek, home to Samsung’s sprawling semiconductor complex, while organizers put the number at 39,000. Samsung’s labor union wants 15 per cent of operating profit handed to chip-division employees. The figure — more than 40 trillion won ($27 billion) — could mean more than $400,000 per worker on average.
Samsung’s management and the union have held both formal and informal talks, with the company offering to allocate 10 per cent of operating profit to bonuses, a 6.2 per cent wage increase and benefits including support for preferential mortgage loans. The proposal was rejected by the union, which sought a 7 per cent increase in wages.
Korea’s most valuable company is grappling with demands over pay and bonuses as it charts a comeback after falling behind homegrown rival SK Hynix Inc. in lucrative high bandwidth memory. Along with Micron Technology Inc., the trio has increasingly shifted production in recent years toward HBM used in Nvidia Corp.’s AI accelerators. Earlier this year, Samsung was first to commercially ship next-generation HBM4 to customers.
“The company has spoken of crisis every year,” Choi Seung-ho, head of Samsung’s biggest labor union, told the crowd. “But in the midst of those crises, it was not management that sustained Samsung Electronics. It was the employees here — the union members — who made the company the world’s leading semiconductor producer, who manufactured, improved processes, worked through the night, and raised yields.”
The union has threatened an 18-day strike starting May 21. Workers have pointed to rising payouts at SK Hynix, which last year agreed to allocate 10 per cent of its annual operating profit to a performance bonus pool, as evidence they deserve more pay.
“Samsung will continue to make efforts to reach a swift agreement in the wage negotiations,” a company spokesperson said.
For decades, Samsung was able to keep workers’ unions at arm’s length. But in recent years, organized labor groups have gained a firmer foothold, emboldening employees to press their case more publicly.
