"We Are Withdrawing From the Union for Semiconductors Only"... Samsung Electronics' Labor Conflict Deepens

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[The Financial News] Tensions are rising inside the Samsung Electronics labor union, which has threatened a general strike while demanding the abolition of the cap on performance bonuses. Complaints that the union has focused only on semiconductor members are spreading, and non-semiconductor members are increasingly filing to leave the union.
Analysts say the latest trigger was the union's decision to raise monthly dues from 10,000 won to 50,000 won while also offering staff 3 million won during the strike period.
According to industry sources on the 3rd, withdrawal requests have surged on the bulletin board of the Enterprise-level labor union's Samsung Electronics Branch Union website, with about 1,000 or more requests a day. A wave of withdrawal posts is also continuing on internal bulletin boards and workplace online communities. These members say the union is only looking after the Device Solutions Division.
The Enterprise-level labor union, Samsung Electronics' only majority union, is made up of about 80% Device Solutions Division employees. The union is demanding that only the Device Solutions Division receive performance bonuses equal to 15% of operating profit, with no cap, while making no particular demands for the Device eXperience (DX) Division.
Unlike the Device Solutions Division, which drove quarterly record operating profit, the DX Division saw operating profit in the first quarter of this year plunge 36% from a year earlier, partly due to higher semiconductor prices. Some even expect annual losses. If the union's demands are realized under these conditions, only Device Solutions Division employees would receive performance bonuses of around 600 million won each this year, making a huge gap in bonuses between divisions unavoidable. The company is also standing firm, saying it cannot accept the union's demand to remove the bonus cap because it could create serious friction between divisions.
The conflict also intensified after the Enterprise-level labor union recently began recruiting staff by promising a 3 million won allowance for those who work more than 15 days during the strike period. In January, the union decided to sharply raise dues from 10,000 won to 50,000 won during the dispute period. As the possibility of a strike became more likely, dissatisfaction among non-semiconductor members has resurfaced.
One DX member said, "DX gets nothing in return, so it makes no sense to raise dues just to be generous to staff," adding, "It feels like money is being taken from my wallet to fund someone else's fight, one that has nothing to do with DX."
Some analysts say the union is not paying much attention to DX members leaving. That is because the smaller number of DX departures would not have much impact on maintaining majority-union status.
An industry official said, "If the Enterprise-level labor union had considered the relative sense of deprivation among DX employees when deciding to raise dues, it would not have been able to make that decision so easily."
One Samsung Electronics employee said, "Inside the Device Solutions Division, labor conflict among employees has become severe, with conversations breaking down depending on whether someone is a union member."
one1@fnnews.com Jeong Won-il Reporter