"Is Samsung Only About Semiconductors?"...Internal Conflict Deepens at Samsung Electronics Labor Union

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[The Financial News] Reports said that discontent is spreading within the Samsung Electronics labor union, which has announced a general strike, as members from non-semiconductor divisions have begun leaving the union, accusing it of focusing only on semiconductor workers.
According to industry sources on the 3rd, posts requesting union withdrawal have surged recently on the bulletin board of the Samsung Electronics Branch of the Super-Enterprise Union. The number of withdrawal requests, which had previously stayed below 100 a day, reportedly topped 500 on the 28th of last month and exceeded 1,000 on the 29th.
The trend is spreading further, along with a chain of withdrawal confirmations on internal bulletin boards and workplace communities.
Those who have left the union say the Super-Enterprise Union is prioritizing the interests of members in the Device Solutions (DS) Division, which handles the semiconductor business, while ignoring the demands of workers in other divisions.
The Super-Enterprise Union, Samsung Electronics' only majority union, is leading the strike mainly with workers in the DS Division, which accounts for about 80% of its membership.
However, ahead of the strike, it has demanded only that the DS Division receive performance bonuses of up to 15% of operating profit without a cap. It has made no demands for the Device eXperience (DX) Division, which has posted relatively weak results.
The DX Division, which handles finished products, saw its operating profit in the first quarter fall 36% from a year earlier due to the impact of semiconductor price increases in the DS Division. There are even forecasts that it could post an annual loss.
If the union's demands are accepted, employees in the DS Division could receive performance bonuses of nearly 60 million won per person this year, while employees in the DX Division may have to worry not about bonuses but about a harsh restructuring drive.
It was also reported that Samsung Electronics is refusing to accept the union's demand to abolish the bonus cap in order to prevent such internal friction.
Still, the union is demanding the same treatment for the Foundry business and System LSI, both of which are loss-making units within the DS Division, further fueling backlash from the DX Division.
Inside the DX Division, some say the union is trying to preserve its majority status and push ahead with the strike by rallying only the DS Division while excluding the relatively smaller DX Division.
Meanwhile, the union recently added to the tension by recruiting staff and offering a 3 million won allowance for those who work more than 15 days during the strike period.
Union members who heard the news have also revisited the union's January decision to sharply raise dues from 10,000 won to 50,000 won during labor disputes, citing the creation of a fund to secure legal status in strike-related disputes.
As the internal conflict deepens, analysts say the union's representativeness and the rationale for the strike are bound to weaken. Still, since DX workers account for only about 20% of the Super-Enterprise Union's roughly 74,000 members, the union is still widely expected to push ahead with the strike.
wongood@fnnews.com Juwon Gyu Reporter