{"id":1946956,"date":"2026-05-21T01:18:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1946956"},"modified":"2026-05-21T01:18:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:18:56","slug":"samsung-strike-on-hold-as-workers-push-for-ai-bonus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1946956","title":{"rendered":"Samsung strike on hold as workers push for AI bonus"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/639b\/live\/8df67be0-54b9-11f1-aebe-91fb4001196b.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"BloombergBloomberg via Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The largest union at Samsung Electronics has suspended a planned strike after reaching a last-minute tentative pay agreement with the South Korean technology giant.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It has temporarily eased fears of disruption at the world’s largest memory chipmaker during a boom in the building of artificial intelligence (AI) data centres.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The union, which represents nearly 48,000 workers, said industrial action that was due to begin on Thursday would be suspended while members vote on the deal from 22-27 May.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Here’s why a strike could be so disruptive for the global technology industry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What is the dispute about?<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The dispute centres on how to distribute profits generated by soaring demand for AI memory chips.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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At issue is the distribution of bonuses between staff in memory chip divisions and those in other units.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Samsung had planned to pay generous bonuses to 27,000 staff making memory chips \u2013 at least six times more than its workers making other chips, and electronics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The union said that 23,000 workers who were making less advanced chips for companies like Tesla and Nvidia should not be left behind.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It raised concerns over potential disruption to chip production, with major implications for global supply chains and South Korea’s export-driven economy. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Samsung is the world’s largest memory chipmaker by sales and a major supplier of chips used in AI data centres, smartphones and laptops.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The broader Samsung Group accounts for roughly a fifth of South Korea’s economic output.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The dispute comes at a sensitive moment for the company as it faces intensifying competition from rivals SK Hynix and Micron amid surging AI-driven chip demand that has already strained global supply.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What has Samsung said?<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Samsung’s operating profit in the January to March quarter jumped about 750% from a year earlier. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Booming demand for AI chips pushed its stock market market valuation past $1tn (\u00a3744bn) in May.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Last year, rival SK Hynix abolished its bonus pay cap for 10 years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This led to bonuses more than three times higher than those offered to Samsung employees. Some Samsung workers jumped ship to SK Hynix as a result.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Samsung then proposed that memory chip workers receive bonuses of 607% of their annual salary \u2013 higher than SK Hynix – according to transcripts of wage negotiations seen by Reuters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But employees in other businesses would only receive bonuses of 50% to 100%, according to the documents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The union also wanted Samsung to abolish a bonus cap of 50% of annual salaries and allocate 15% of annual operating profit to a bonus pool distributed to workers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Samsung bosses previously flagged that the strike could impact South Korea’s economy more broadly, because of lower sales, investment outflows and lower tax revenue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In the statement issued after the tentative deal was agreed the company said: “With a humble attitude, we will build a more mature and constructive labour-management relationship to ensure that such an incident never happens again.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On Thursday, Samsung’s shares rose by more than 8% after the announcement, while South Korea’s Kospi stock index also jumped by over 8%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What impact could a strike have?<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Such a strike could impact Samsung’s operating profit \u2060by 21 trillion won to 31 trillion won ($14.08bn to $20.79bn; \u00a310.4bn to \u00a315.4bn), according to JP Morgan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But any walkout is likely to be limited, after a South Korean court granted Samsung Electronics an injunction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The court said staffing levels needed for safety protection, facility damage prevention and product quality maintenance must remain at normal levels, to prevent damage to facilities and production.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It also barred the union and its leader from occupying or locking company facilities and obstructing workers from entering them. The union would face fines of $74,000 a day if it breaches the order.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“In today’s interconnected global economy, disruptions in strategically important industries can create ripple effects extending well beyond a single company or market,” the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Competing regional manufacturing markets could benefit if concerns over predictability and continuity persist.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c4g04qkqlk2o”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/639b\/live\/8df67be0-54b9-11f1-aebe-91fb4001196b.jpg”] Bloomberg via Getty Images The largest union at Samsung Electronics has suspended a planned strike after reaching a last-minute tentative pay agreement with the South Korean technology giant. It has temporarily eased fears of disruption at the world’s largest memory chipmaker during a boom in the building of artificial intelligence (AI) data […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-1946956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1946956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1946956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1946956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1946956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}